9 Redemption and Salvation
by Stone-Man85
Summary: The Nine stitchpunks have defeated the Fabricator Machine, and have restored life to their dead world once again. But is the war over? OCs and 9x7
1. A Different Ending, a New Beginning

Disclaimer Note: I don't own the movie nor story, 9. They, persons, places, and things, are all the sole property of Shane Acker, Tim Burton, and Timur Bekmambetov. Original characters are of my own design and purpose. Anyway, this story popped into my head and I thought about it for a while after I saw all the Terminator movies. Also, I've sort of added a little more detail to the dolls. Later, I'll add a bit more, but for now, I sorta anime-ized the body design a bit. I just kinda felt that their body design was a bit too toy-like.

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**9: Redemption and Salvation**

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_We had such potential… such promise…_

_And yet in the end, we squandered our gifts; our intelligence._

_Our blind pursuit of technology, had only sped us further to our destruction._

_Our world is ending…._

… _but Life… must go on…_

_And so… 1-9... I created you… the Last remnants of Humanity… the very pieces of my soul…_

_You… shall protect the future…_

_The Professor,_

_August 29, 1937_

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The battlefield was intense, as the bomb shelter that the Fabricator, the spider-Cyclops housed body of the B.R.A.I.N that brought about the ruin of all life on the planet, had destroyed, erupted in a ball of flame. The explosion rocked the land all around, sending wood and rock scattering around the dead land. As the blast nearly shook everything. Being thrown away and crashing into the ground as they skidded into the dirt. They… were the last of one man's attempt to salvage life from the very beast that he unwittingly and helplessly unleashed onto the world. And they, in all best sense of the word, were his children or carriers of his soul. The last ones to carry his soul.

The four figure being thrown out of the explosion were four hand held rag dolls, or Stitchpunks as to what the humans had called them before they were all killed by the machine's deadly gas. They were no taller than a hand-held doll, and more advanced than anything at all. Creations made of a combination of modern science, and Dark Arts Alchemy of the Old Times. There were originally nine creations all, but now… there were only five left.

The first one was male due to his slim build and otherwise obvious model shape; his top was thin but strong, while his bottom half looked like they were puffy pants of sorts. His body was covered in a tight brown fabric, stitched on the arms and head, while tied at the wrists, ankles and neck. Both his hands and feet were well detailed; a combination of molded copper and carved wood. On the front of him was a zipper with the pull tip looking like a business tie of sorts. His eyebrows were stitched as well, and his eyes were lenses, and strapped to his right thigh by a thin piece of leather with a button made into a belt buckle, was one of the removable cutting tools that potters would use to engrave writing on their pottery. And on his back, written in thin ink, was the number 9.

The two that crashed into the ground were a bit smaller than the one numbered 9. They were only about a quarter inch smaller than 9, and were designed differently than him. They were of twin design as they were both made of what appeared to be gardening gloves for their whole bodies. Their frame was thin, from top to bottom, with only the legs a little puffy. Their feet made of wood, and their hands were made of thin steel, molded perfectly. There were two thin gold lines going down vertically. Behind him were two coat tails made of the thumbs of the gloves, that went down to the back of the legs, with a pocket on one side of the tail. Their head, which was light brown, also had the same lens eyes, stitched eyebrows with a lighter brown thread, and the same mouth as well, but their heads had blue tube sock hoods. One had the number 3 on the left side of their chest, while the other had the number 4 on the right side of the chest.

Another figure was another stitchpunk, only this time, it was a female. This was due to the fact that her body was designed into a slim and slender figure, more befitting of that of a female athlete. The fabric that was made for her skin was completely bleached out, probably due by the sun. she had on a bird's skull made into a mask, with a brown and light-colored feather that went down to her back, sewn into the back of her head, like a long ponytail. Sewn on top of her head were thin cotton strings, braided back into the feather and on the sides, hung loose like bangs, giving her a hairdo sewn to resemble braids of sorts. And sewn into where ears should have been, two small tooth earrings. Like the others, her hands and feet were copper steel and flexible jointed as well. Her thin eyebrows were sewn above her well-crafted thin lens eyes. Her front was held together by stitches, and by a green tab button on top of her right breast. And on her back, nearly ripped or faded away, was the number 7.

The blast had thrown her into a wooden beam, which was no bigger than a tall building to them. Striking against it, her helmet was thrown off, revealing her raven black sewn hair. Her helmet fell down, thrown aside, as the one called 7 slumped to the ground, nearly lifeless. The twins, 3 and 4, saw this as their twin faces both shared a look of shock and worry for their friend.

They immediately rushed over to her aid, as not far from them, the fifth Stitchpunk was crawling his way over to the sidelines and out of sight. This one was much out-dated than the other four. It was a male, but designed to look like he was an old man, probably mid 50s or 60s. His whole body from head to knees, was covered in a flexible stretchable khaki leather, held together from the chest, waist, and under the knees with belts. His knees were sewn in with knee pads made of the leather, and his face was sewn in the middle vertically, with a tied up tail on the top. The thighs were sewn together to resemble some sort of big puffy pants like you'd seen in that animated movie, Aladdin. His hands and feet were skeletal, meaning he was the first design ever. His lens eyes had squinted shutters, giving him a wise man look in them, or possibly a grouch of sorts. And on his back, was the number 1, indeed making him the first model of the Stitchpunks.

He crawled his way over to the side, making sure he stayed out of the way. As soon as he stopped and had himself seated up, he groaned as he cringed from a pain in his left hand. He brought it up to look at it, only to see that it had been caught in the explosion. Most of the fingers had been blown off, and his thumb and pinky were barely holding on.

He gasped in both pain and fear to seeing this, and groaned, 'Confound pieces of…!'

But his banter stopped as soon as he and the others heard a familiar angered roar. As 9 was getting up, he looked from the rubble of the collapsed tunnel shelter. The fiery ashes and burning wood began to be thrown or pushed off, giving freedom to the once mobile terror that plagued them all. The Fabricator had once again survived the explosion, as it did the first time. Its red eye glowed menacingly, as it looked at 9 in particular. It knew no emotions, only the knowledge that the Scientist that invented it had given it. It learned anger and hatred from the one that had abused it and treated it like a slave. And now… that anger was directed at 9, as it slowly made its way to him, with what little limbs were left on its spider-like mechanical body.

9 got back up on his feet, and groggily looked at the machine, in a mixture of fright… but courage. He knew what needed to be done; the Scientist's last words and instructions had shown him what needed to be done. And there, right where 9 was looking, under the red eye of the B.R.A.I.N, was the Alchemic Talisman, the artifact that not only brought 9 and the others, as well as the B.R.A.I.N life, but was the key to destroying the Fabricator, as well as free the trapped souls of the others that the Fabricator had cruelly trapped in its soulless shell.

The stitchpunk 9 stood his ground as he readied himself to do his part to save the others. As the twins helped her up, 7 saw 9 just standing there as the Fabricator was about to slowly go to him. She wondered what he was about to do, when suddenly she remembered…

…_.I'll lure it to me, and then when it's done, you'll have a chance to grab the Talisman…_

"No!" Seven shouted as she pushed the twins aside, and rushed over to Nine. Surprising Nine, she grabbed his left arm, surprising him a bit as she pleaded, "Nine, please!" her grip on his arm softened as she looked into his eyes. "We can't do this without you."

Nine looked at her and saw the look in her eyes that stared into his. They were a look of pleading to him, to not throw his life away like this. He placed his hand on top of hers as he looked into her eyes; a look saying that it would be alright, and that he had made up his mind. With a tone of depression and sadness in his voice, 9 replied, "It's because of me all this happened. Two, Eight, Five, and Six… they all died because of me." with Seven's grip loosened a bit, Nine then took both his hands into just one of hers, as his resolved hardened. "I started this, and now I need to finish it," he finished as he pulled away.

Seven stood there, as Nine still held on to her hand, bringing them up to their faces. She looked at him with pained sadness and mixed emotions to the Stitchpunk that saved her life twice now. Pulling away from her, she felt their fingers slide between each other as he finally pulled away, and rushed to bait the Fabricator into the open, as it crawled towards Nine at this moment. At that moment, as she looked at the scene, all Seven could do, was put her hands over her heart, trying to shield it from the pain within.

1 got up from his spot, back onto his feet groggily as he had witnessed the whole scene. Now, he stood there, watching Seven standby and do nothing as regret and a deep sharp pain of loss filled her heart at this selfless sacrifice to the one she had secretly grown to care about. He then drew his attention to the one that destroyed what he tried to create… and was now trying to save, with much bravery and steely determination, all to save the world for the humans that had left them in this nightmare. But as he watched this, a mixture of his own regret of just standing by and cowering in a corner, began to fill the prototype's seem ably empty heart.

"They left us all nothing. Nothing," he muttered to himself as he watched Nine making a selfless sacrifice. His face then frowned as eh thought aloud, "Why should we have to right their wrongs? Why should we suffer for their mistakes?" and then he looked to Nine, as he was willingly about to sacrifice himself to the Machine, as it stopped right in front of him, dwarfing the small doll-sized stitchpunk. As he saw this, One finally asked himself, "Why should the young ones suffer for their mistakes?" the Fabricator stopped as it's red eye powered down, and all the power went to the small round and bronze-colored talisman that started to glow green at the cracks. "Sometimes…" 1 told himself as he started to slowly walk towards where 9 was. "Sometimes, _one_ must be sacrificed…"

The Talisman then opened up, as a green misty energy began to glow and grow larger and brighter. As he saw this, 9 nearly flinched to turn away as he shut his eyes tightly, awaiting the beam to hit him, with quiet dignity and grace. But before the beam of light struck him… 1 ran up, and shoved him out of the way. 1 stood his ground, as the beam struck him in the eyes and mouth, nearly pulling him off the ground, as his arms flailed around like paper in the wind.

9 got on to his feet again, and stared in horror as he saw 1 take the sacrifice. "NO!!!" he shouted as he futilely reached out to 1.

The most advanced watched as the first of their kind was being drained of his soul. As this happened, 9 wasn't about to let his sacrifice be in vain. He ran as fast as he could towards the distracted Fabricator; running up a makeshift platform that the debris had created, 9 ran up to the distracted Machine. He stopped right under it to where the Talisman, the item that the Scientist had created to give the Stitchpunks life, as well as the instrument in which the Machine had used to trap the others inside of it. He then latched on to the talisman, pulling at it with all his little might.

Then, as 1's soul had been pulled fully out, his lifeless body fell to the ground, his mouth and eyes smoking from the excess energy that had been expelled. And it was at that moment, 9 had finally yanked out the talisman; he fell and skidded to 1's lifeless shell with the closed talisman in hand.

The Fabricator's red eye opened as it roared out, arches of lightning sparking all over its head as it felt something wrong. He looked down and noticed the stitchpunk's lifeless shell lying on its side. It zoomed to examine the shell… and noticed it was the wrong one that it had tried to kill. The Fabricator looked to its right and saw 9... Holding the Talisman in his hands. The Machine roared in pure rage-powered hatred as even more powerful lightning arcs danced all around its head, and then all around its body, almost as if it was about to shut down. Its body shook, as it slowly reached to grab 9 with one of its main three-clawed hands.

9 saw this and quickly stood up, while dialing in the sequence of the three symbols of the Talisman. Immediately, 9 pointed it forward towards the giant monster as the Talisman opened. Three might beams of green light, shot straight into the Machine's main eye, shattering the lens of the eye. The massive energy shot nearly blew 9 off his feet, but the little stitchpunk stood his ground, unflinching at the Machine began to spasm and shake like the other stitchpunks did as it took their souls from them. And then, through the beams of light, five bulbs of light green energy were sucked out of the Machine's brain, transferring back into the talisman as it closed up, sending 9 to fall flat on his butt. The machine's opened eye socket sparked with red flaming sparks as it howled in pain; it's mechanized roar filling the air as it swooned in dizzied pain and agony. It then rose up into the air, letting out a monstrous loud roar, until finally, the B.R.A.I.N exploded in the Fabricator's main storage container, destroying the B.R.A.I.N, or Binary Reactive Artificially Intelligent Neurocircuit, once and for all.

9 shielded his eyes for a moment from the explosion, and unshielded them as he saw the rain of sparks fall down to the ground. He looked up, and saw the lifeless form of the Machine start to tip and slowly fall down towards him. Immediately, he started to run away from the falling contraption as it began to fall apart and collapse forward. Unfortunately, it fell right on top of him, burying him in one of the arms.

"9!!!" 7 called out in terror as she ran towards the fallen Machine, with the twins right behind her.

They ran into the lifeless hulk of metal, as they searched to where 9 might have been crushed at. It was then that 7 spotted him as she nearly paled, more than her bleached outer layer was. "Oh no," she gasped as she saw 9's form, lying there on the ground as in his left hand still clutched the Talisman.

She and the twins raced over to him as she slid on her knees and stopped at his side. The twins stopped side by side as 7 gently pulled him over to her side, turning him over to his back. His eyes were shut as his mouth hung open; it was obvious that he didn't survive the impact or was struck a blow by the Machine, giving it the last victory.

7 gasped as she lightly shook her head, almost about to look away. But then, 9 quickly opened his eyes as he coughed out relief. 7 sighed in relief, and the twins' eyes were flashing and blinking with joy as they shook each other's hands. She gently helped him up in a sitting position as he groaned a bit.

And then, surprising the newest stitchpunk, she brought him in an embraced hug, resting her chin on his shoulder as she whispered, "You did it." The two then pulled apart, noticing 9's face didn't show happiness at all. She slightly frowned in worry as she asked him, "What is it?"

"No, I didn't," 9 answered as he shook his head. He then brought up the Talisman in his hands, giving the others a look at it. "At least not yet."

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**One Week Later**

**The Scientist's Home**

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In the nearly-destroyed house of where the Scientist had brought all the Nine Stitchpunk homunculi to life, the four remaining Stitchpunks were working together to prepare for what was about to come. A week had past since the destruction of the Machine had past, earning a sense of piece in the ruined world that the stitchpunks had awakened into. And in that week, the four had worked hard to complete what 9 had talked about.

On the work table to where they had been made and brought to life on, it had fully been remodeled. The device that had been used to transfer the life-force from the scientist into one of them had been refitted into a sort of platform device, with five wires sticking through it instead of one. Attached to the five wires were five bodies lying on a platform made from an old book, one of them being 1's body, with his hand fully repaired, fingers and all.

The first body was a male stitchpunk, with 9's basic design. However, instead of the zipper that 9 had, he had buttons on his front to fasten his skin. His fabric skin was a bit darker, but where his body was stitched together, it was shown to be much darker. And where his left eye should have been, a piece of brown leather was sewn into it. And on his back was written the number 5.

Next to him was another male stitchpunk, but it seemed a bit different, in this case, its body was white and had black vertical stripes on it. On the but and chest of the body, as well as the knees, were several black ink stains. And where his fingers were ink filled pen nibs as the fingers. On his head was an impression of black messy hair made of string tips dipped in black ink. Around his neck appeared to be a black key, acting as a necklace of sorts. His right eye was smaller than his left, and he appeared to be built a little clumsy. On his back was written the number 6.

The other one was another male model, but this one showed to be of an elderly model much like 1. And much like 1, his thighs were sewn together to resemble big puffy pants. However, his fingers were a bit more jointed like a humans, and his palms resembled that of 3-9's. his feet weren't clawed but the toes were made from carved wood, and a ball socket for his thumb to move around. His skin was stitched together from light fabric and dark brown fabric, and held together with many knotted strings, like a shoe would be, but around his waist, it seemed to be sewn back together for some odd reason. The back of his head had a metal plate of sorts, and on his back was etched the number 2.

And finally, the last body was that of a huge fellow, much taller than the other stitchpunks. A giant, cumbersome brute would be the best way to describe this gargantuan stitchpunk. His whole body was all muscle from view, much like a body builder working out way too much. His face was stitched from two separate fabrics, with three black lines going down vertically from his mouth; a permanent glaring look on his eyebrows was made, with a little fabric tail sticking out from behind his skull. Strapped around his shoulders was a shoulder guard made from the broken belts of a chainsaw, and on his elbows were metallic buttons sewn in to act as elbow guards. His hands were much like 9's, but his feet were crafted differently with the toes cut off. His skin was held together by three buckles, and on his right shoulder was written the number 8.

The twins and 7 were done with their part, as 9 had finished the last wire as he walked up the platform. "I think that's it," he hold himself as he peered over and smirked, "I think it's time… to bring them back, don't you?"

7 nodded, "I'd say it's time."

9 smirked at them as he walked over to the center of the platform. In the center, made in a stock halfway up to the waist, the Talisman was implanted in there. 9 figured that now that the souls of their fallen comrades had been safely freed from the Fabrication Machine, there was a chance to bring them back. 'I just hope this works,' he thought to himself as he pressed the first glyph. Then followed by the second and third, the talisman opened up, allowing the light green energy to temporarily glow as the talisman opened. Then, traveling down the wires, five spheres of green energy slowly snaked their way into the five stitchpunks. 9 hopped off the platform as he joined the three other amazed stitchpunks at this; they saw that the energy made the five bodies glow for a bit, as if life was being restored to their bodies. When the light had finally died out, 9 climbed up the book and knelt down to the one numbered 5.

He checked on him, if there was any change at all, "5?" He then lightly shook the shoulder of one of his best friends as he asked again, "5?" but he stopped, as soon as he realized nothing changed whatsoever. He pulled his hands away from his friend's lifeless shoulders as he just sat on his knees.

7, 3, and 4 climbed up to join them, with the twins kneeling down their closest friend, 6. She stopped to 9, and saw that nothing changed at all. Feeling saddened, she knelt down next to him, and wrapped her arms around him, in order to comfort him. "9, I'm sorry," she apologized to him, trying to bring comfort to him. "I wished this worked too."

"It's just… " 9 struggled with the words. "I was so sure that this would…" but they both stopped as they heard a groan… but not coming from either one of them. They broke apart as they saw a miracle before them: 5's hand had shot up, and he was getting up, groaning. 9 smiled brightly as he cried out, "5! You're back!!!" and lunged at him, encompassing his close friend in a tight hug.

Feeling the wind being crushed out of him, 5 cried out, "ARGH!!! NO! let go, let go!!"

Realizing his margarine mistake, 9 pulled away as 5 breathed in relief. "Uh, sorry," 9 sheepishly apologized.

"It's alright," 5 breathed out, but then looked around in shock, as if something spooked him out. "Wait! Where's the Machine?! Is it…?"

"Don't worry," 7 reached down to pull him back up on his feet, as 9 stood up with them. She then pointed to 9 as she explained, "9 did it. He destroyed the machine, and…"

But then they were stopped by another groan, as they turned to where the twins were. 6 had gotten back on his feet, with the help of the now cheered up twins as they began to playfully catalog the crazy soothsayer. But as he got back on to his feet, he was scooped up off the ground, on to the shoulders of the now revived 8. The mighty giant, who was normally picking on 6, seemed to be more overjoyed as he chuckled, looking up at the equally happy 6.

Then the others turned to look and see both 1 and 2 were waking up as well, as the eldest of the stitchpunks were steadying their posture. 5 broke out a smile to his aged mentor and friend, "2!" and rushed over to help him steady himself.

2 looked to his friend as he smiled, "I knew we'd see each other again," He then looked over to 9 as he smiled and chuckled in glee, "Smashing, 9. Just smashing! Haha!"

Then they all looked to 1, who walked up to them all, and close to 9 in particular. His same scowl was on his face as the two were staring down to one another; 1 with his scowl, and 9 with his confused face. But then, something happened none of them expected… 1 placed a patting hadn on 9's shoulder, and smiled, "Well done, lad. Well done."

9 just smirked as he patted 1's shoulder, "Thank you."

Just then, the talisman erupted a beam of green light, with a boom that caused the nine reunited stitchpunks to turn and look. The pillar of energy shot up to the sky, into the darkened clouds that blocked out the sun. this happened for only a few seconds, but in those seconds, the nine heard a voice, a familiar voice to them as it spoke out,

_The Nine… you… shall protect the future…_

The light then finally was sucked up into the sky, as the talisman closed up again. Suddenly, the sky lit up with green lightning, nearly scaring the stitchpunks. But that came to pass, as when the lightning died down, another miraculous discovery happened; as the lightning died down, rain began to fall upon the dead land. When they looked up at this, they were all surprised at this new wonder, and all happy. Even the twins were as they tried to catalog this strange event, or with 6 trying to catch one of the drops while on 8's shoulders, or 8 even as he ate one of the drops, and found it was pretty tasty.

While they all were staring at this beautiful view, 9 and 7 looked to each other with a smile a this sight. And in a surprise notion, 7 slipped her hand into his, much to his surprise and non-resistance to the move. They turned their attention back to the rain, as 7 asked, "What happens next?"

"I'm not sure, exactly," 9 replied as he turned to everyone, whose attention was now turned to him. But then he smiled again as he turned towards the sky, seeing the rain fall, "But this world is ours now. It's what we make of it." the others smiled as they all looked up at the sky as well.

And as the rain fell, small tiny green microbes, swirled in the rain drops as they seeped into the earth. Once again… life was renewed to the once dead world. And with it, nine individuals to help make sure of it.

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**Next Chapter: A Whole New World; Are We Alone?**

**Feel free to read and review this bad boy, if you will.**


	2. Are We Alone?

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Disclaimer: After careful consideration, as well as reading 9 the Novelization, I decided to make 4 into a girl. It sort of balances out the one girl crap going on, that and it's not uncommon for brothers and sisters to be twins.

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9: Redemption and Salvation

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Chapter 1: A Whole New World; Are We Alone?

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1 Week Later

The Library

The ancient library, the home to 3 and 4, the twin brother and sister scholars of the Nine. It stood pristine as ever, even after the Great War between the Human Resistance and the Machines had all but ended. The statues in the dead garden were still in one piece, even amongst the dead but still standing leafless trees. At the doorways, piles upon piles of books were all littered among the ground, acting as hills and stairways. Some trees began to grow in the library's main halls, and going through the roofs. However, the trees seemed a bit, lively for a moment; the bark had somehow become more alive ever since the rain a week ago had showered upon them and the whole land.

However, some activity was shown up on the roof, as a figure glided on top of it. There, running on the roof, was 7, as she strode over the seemingly long roof due to her small size. Her look had changed a bit, over the past week; with time on her hand without fighting the Machine's beasts seeing as they were all destroyed, she had time for a change or two. She still had her same look: same bleached skin and figure, with thin black cotton strings to resemble braid hair. Only this time, the top of her hair had been pulled back, but the sides of her short shoulder hair was left hanging over where her bone earrings were, and she still had the bird's feather sewn in the back, but this time, where the feather's bone tip in was, now had a bead to hide the sewn marks. However, there were a few loose strands that were on her forehead, one of them being a pretty big bang on the left side, dangling and touching the tip of her cheek. Around her waist, were three black leather belts; one was tight around her thin waist, while the other two were dangling on her sides, the left belt hung in the middle of her thigh, while the right belt dangled next to her right knee, and they all had white button buckles. Strapped from her left shoulder to the right side of her ribs, a brown leather strap with beads sewn into it, and a string tied around her neck, with a green bead on it, making it a bit decorative like a necklace. Her bird skull helmet and her shield were missing for the moment, but she was just a bit overjoyed at the run that she was having for now.

"9, come on!" she shouted behind her. "You've been going through my training for a while! At least, you can try and keep up!"

Following behind her, 9 was vastly catching up. And he too, like 7 and possibly the others, had gone a few changes himself. He had on him a black leather strap belt with a silver buckle, tight around his waist. Sewn onto the belt by a brown snap-on button, was a leather satchel strap, holding who knows what. Tied to the belt was a brown piece of cloth belonging to a soldier's uniform, acting like a Fauld, or armored skirt, except it was only protecting the right side and the back. From his left shoulder to the right side of the belt was a brown leather strap, and on the back of the strap was a sewn in hold used to hold his light bulb staff, with a little string strap on his right shoulder. And on front, fastened to the belt, was a wire cover, used to cover exposed wire tips. He had used it as a sheath to keep the pottery tool blade he used as a sword dagger of sorts. And sewn onto both shoulder straps, a white sock hood was made, hanging down from behind him. However, the strap or belts didn't hinder his zipper; the metal tap hung around the belt. And on his right bicep, was a red shred of cloth tied around it.

He was smiling as they ran across the rooftop, and shouted, "You said not to hold back! You're not exactly holding back in order to let me catch up!"

7 just laughed at this, "It's your fault if you can't keep up!" and she just kept going, hiding her smile from 9.

After the Machine's demise, and the resurrection of the five lost ones, things had been pretty quiet. However, 9 had asked 7 if she could train him to be a bit more of a warrior for the others. She asked why he didn't go to 8, and saw the uneasiness in his eyes, indicating that 8 would probably kill him during the training. His reasons for doing such, was that he felt like he didn't do much for the battlefield. And if they ever ran into any remaining Beasts, he would be more helpful in battle. For the past week, she took him under his wing, making him as fast as she was, and just as agile. His strength… needed much improvement. She smiled as she continued to stride forward in the run, 'He's really improved in over this week. Seems kind of unfair to me,' but she stiffened a giggle as she turned ot the right, heading towards the edge, 'But it wouldn't be fun if he couldn't do this.'

The two continued to run ahead as 9 started to keep up a bit, but then they turned to the left… heading towards the edge of the roof. As they reached it, 7 jumped first, followed by 9, but they soon landed on one of the tree branches of one of the trees that were close by. They landed crouched style, and then sped off again, racing on the branch. Then 7 jumped off the branch, and latched onto a nearby branch, swinging on it until she jumped down to the next one, leading to the other side of the roof they ran on. When they hopped onto the roof, they slid into the drain ducts, running down it, as they jumped into the hole that went down the drain. The drain was bent and twisted into a sort of gerbil or hamster maze way that led to the inside of the library, to which they were now heading into.

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**Inside the Library

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The many abandoned and messed up shelves stood tall and strong even in the emptiness of the former human world. Many of the books stayed on the dust and cobweb-covered shelves, but some were lay strewn among the floors. Some of the busts and statues that were part of the library were still standing or on the ground, either in once piece or in several. The globe that once stood in the center, was now next to one of the shelves, still spherical in shape, but a few holes in it, and rust colored now; most of the continents on it either covered in a thick blanket of dust or somehow just faded away from neglected care on it.

However, at one of the bookcases close to the wall, a hole was present with a pipe sticking on it. And out popped 7 and 9, crashing to the wooden casing on their butts. But as soon as they chuckled a bit from the fall, they immediately got up, and continued their run. The two were having much fun with their exercise, that they completely ignored the world around them. As they ran on to one of the makeshift bridges, 9 had an idea that could catch 7 off guard.

As soon as 7 turned to go to the other bridge, 9 immediately jumped right at her. Tackling her had caused her to jump in surprise as the two tumbled nearly off the bookshelf. Luckily, 7 grabbed the ledge of the book case with ease, and grabbed onto 9 as they both dangled in the air, both looking at each other at this time. For a moment, the two finally caught each other's breath as they both chuckled at this; the adrenaline finally wearing off and a wave of silliness coming in to wash away the fear that they had a while ago. In truth, it was one of their memorable moments.

7 just gave 9 a half smile as she responded, "I know you're desperate to catch up with me…" she then turned her attention downward to the long drop, and back to 9, "… but was the tackle necessary?"

In the moment, all 9 could do to answer was give her a lopsided grin. "Well, you always said to get the enemy by surprise. So I tried it with you."

The two just smiled at one another, as 7 began to swing 9 over to the ledge. "Get ready to grab it," she told him as the swing began to strengthen.

This allowed 9 a good reach for the ledge of the casing. As soon as it was good enough, 9 grabbed the ledge and clamped his fingers on it tightly. It was a good grip on it as he looked to 7, giving her the signal to let him go as he grabbed it with his other hand. Then the most advanced of the nine stitchpunks hoisted himself up, and then ran over to 7's side. He grabbed her hand, then the other, and hoisted the female warrior back onto her feet.

She felt a bit unsteady from the trip and fall that 9 had done to her, but she had someone to steady on. When she was right enough, she slowly started to stand up, and look up at the one that had helped her. Surprisingly though, they were holding hands in order for her to be steady… which didn't really get the two embarrassed in the usual sense.

Ever since a few weeks ago, the two stitchpunks had sort of hung out a lot more than usual. Despite the touching embrace they had when the BRAIN had fallen, they really didn't show much of a relationship. Probably because that 9 was a bit on the naïveté on such a thing, or that 7 was just too proud a warrior to ever succumb to such an emotional attachment, or be open to it for someone so close as him. However, on some occassions, like the one happening now, the two would sort of stumble onto that coming bridge of romance… even when they got lost in it. It was then that the two stitchpunks had noticed, but didn't seem to care at that moment, that they were getting closer together; their lips were almost about to meet…

"9!"

The two pulled apart suddenly, waking up from their little 'romance', to see who had shouted to them. They pulled apart, and saw none other than 5, running to them and skidded to a halt only about seven feet from them. Like 7 and 9, 5 had also done a wardrobe change or two. He had on his trusty bow and arrow pack case, made of a curled up poker card and thimble, strapped around him and resting on his back with an assortment of arrows and hooks made of fishing hooks, needles and other pointy objects. Strapped next to it was his crossbow, made of a bottle opener, a wind up key, and two springs. Around his waist was a brown cloth buckled by two black buttons, with another belt dangling on the right side, having a thimble fastened to it with a few tools in it. Around his waist attached to the belt, was a brown leather shawl guard, with pockets sewn into it. And on the back of the belt, a needle and sewing kit were dangling behind it.

"1, 2, and 8 just got back," the one-eyed stitchpunk proclaimed with an excited smile. "They just got back from the old sanctuary with some things. They even brought the radio. We should…" but then he stopped as he looked at the two, almost questioning their previous attempted action. He then shrunk back a bit, shying almost as he nervously asked, "Oh. Was this a bad time?"

"Well, not really," 9 sorta lied to his best friend. "Come on, let's go."

The two boy stitchpunks were about to go on their way, but 9 stopped as he turned to look at 7. Feeling that he had done something wrong, he looked to her apologetically. However, she just smiled at him as she shrugged, "Don't worry, 9. Now get going; 2'll need you both. I'll catch up later."

9 smiled, although he knew she was a bit disappointed, but went with it, "Alright. We'll meet you all at the globe."

She smiled and turned away to get her things. But as she started to run, she slightly frowned and sighed deeply, 'You should have kissed him…'

And with that, the two friends raced towards their direction to the center of the Library. There, the new sanctuary and information station was all in place.

**

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**Inside the Globe**

The globe had once been the center piece statue of the library, when it was still occupied by the humans. Now, lying on the ground, rusting and breaking, the twin siblings, 3 and 4, sought fit to use it as their Knowledge Bank, so to speak. They had spent who knows how many years, filling it with so much artifacts of the past, articles of historical events that had unfolded beyond their lifetime. Inside the dome globe, shelves upon shelves of items, articles, and other documents were carefully numbered and detailed. Connecting them all to each other were lines that led down to the center of the construct. The center housed a giant book, much to the size of the Stitchpunks themselves for being so small, which was sort of the 'Search Index' of the whole room. A constructed platform, in which it was made of components in the shape of a lift, with a platter bolted in as a platform, and a control console made of a spoon and fork.

Currently, on the shelf marked 'Communications', the twins were hard at work with 2. Like 5, 7, and 9, the twins and 2 had also gone on a wardrobe improvement in the time that had gone by. 3 now had a blue piece of cloth draped around his neck and over his right shoulder, acting as a scarf. Around his waist was a blue belt with a white button holding it in place, with scraps of paper in a satchel sewn to it. 4 had also changed a bit; for one, her female figure, despite it belonging to a fourteen year old teenage girl, had shown quite a bit. She now had a red scarf draped around her neck and left shoulder, with a red belt and black button holding it in place, with scraps of paper in a satchel hanging on her right hip.

The twins were currently searching through a box of objects and parts that belonged to an old radio box. Since there were no other whole radios, unlike the one that they had seen back at the Sanctuary, they had scavenged any parts that they catalogued from the books they researched. The radio that 1,2, and 8 had brought back was still in one piece, albeit burnt and half gone. But it was still missing some key components, and hopefully the twins would locate the necessary parts.

Looking through the pages of a large assembly book on radio transmission, was 2 himself. His look changed a bit as well, as it was pretty noticeable. Like 5, he had a brown cloth buckled by two black buttons, with another belt dangling on the right side, having a thimble fastened to it with a few tools in it. He had his old candlestick light hat on, with a new lens in place of the one that was destroyed by the attack of the Cat Beast. Balancing himself on his left hand was a hook screw in use of a cane.

2 examined the blueprints as he adjusted his lens to get a better magnification on it as he looked at the details. For a moment, he then spotted what he was looking for, "Ah, here it is." He then turned to the twins as he stated, "We need to find about four Radio Tubes," he then pointed to a page depicting the components said, "These right here."

The twins looked at the illustration, and then to each other. They blinked their eyes with flashes at one another, communicating in the only way to them possible, considering that they both were mute. so to make up for a lack of a voice, they communicated to each other by a series of flashes they can make from their eyes. And when trying to talk to the others, they could also use their eyes to play video clips and 'catalog' things. After they had done talking to one another, 3 then turned to 2 and looked to the wall.

His eyes then shot out a video clip of sorts; the lights lit up, and projected a somewhat film on the clear wall. The film showed a step-by-step assembly tutorial of a classical 1930s-40s radio. 2 walked over, with the use of the cane, and adjusted the lens he had.

After a moment, the 'old sea dog' smirked and chuckled, "Aha! Now I see," he then strode back to the parts bin. He rummaged a bit and pulled out the parts needed. "Come. Let's get that relic downstairs working again."

2 strode over with the parts to the platform, setting them down and beckoning the others on over. 3 and 4 raced on over, in unison as they always did, and hopped on to the platform as well. 4 reached over to the spoon control, and pulled it back. The platform suddenly shot to life, and slowly pulled them down in a spiral pattern, going past all the other exhibits, as they reached the floor and make their way to where 1 and 8 were waiting by at the radio.

**

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**Outside the Globe**

**

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**

Down at the floor level, the half burnt and still slightly whole radio was in wait. Hooked up to it was an old car battery that was on the rusting side, with puffs of dried up battery acid on the lower sides. The radio was not hooked up yet at least, but that wasn't the object of importance at this time. There, sitting on one of the books nearby, sharpening a massive knife-like sword, was the stitchpunk, 8.

His wardrobe remained the same, with his shoulder guard made from the broken belts of a chainsaw, and on his elbows were metallic buttons sewn in to act as elbow guards. But now adding to his wardrobe was a black strap bolted to his guard, and down to a shawl guard around his waist, made of broken chainsaw belts. On his knees, steel buttons were sewn in to make knee guards. Wrapped around his forearms were black colored rubber bands, as well as around his palms. He even had a new salt/pepper shaker helmet strapped on the back of his head, as well as a new scissor sword. He was currently wicking his knife sword, as he usually did.

Meanwhile, 1 was pacing back and forth; his scowled frown imprinted on his face constantly. He had regained his usual attire, not changing like the others did. 9 had given him a new red cape, considering he had mentioned that he owed him a new one from the Winged Dragon beast a while ago. Locking it in place was a new ruby cuffling to hold it in place. His gear bell cane had been found in the ruins of the old sanctuary. And finally, he had a restored hat on his head, to hide the embarrassing bag ponytail; the hat being half an empty bullet shell, tied around it a penny with the number 1 in front.

Finally, after much pacing back and forth, the eldest of the stitchpunks huffed, "Ludicrous. This is just simply ludicrous. What's the point in fixing this blasted contraption anyway? There's nothing left out there; there's only the nine of us, and a whole lifeless dust ball of a planet."

The stitchpunks, after having the five lost been resurrected, had a long discussion on what to do now. After much debate on it, they had decided that they should try and seen what the rest of the world was like. Though 9 had made the idea that they should find some sort of way of knowing what it was like out there. And so 5 and 2 had made the ideal suggestion to use one of the old radios that were still working. If there was any sign of life out there, the radio would try and pick up a transmission to see if anything… or anyone… had actually survived the onslaught, and was in hiding from the Machines.

However, 1 as always, wasn't too keen on an idea such as this, even as he vented out. "Was I just spouting out nonsense when that newborn, 9, came to our sanctuary? I told him just as I and everyone else saw it: the gas killed everything. There's nothing left out there."

"We won't know unless we see for ourselves," 9 replied, startling the old stitchpunk as he turned around.

1 saw that 9 and 5 had arrived, along with 2, 3 and 4 with the spare parts. 2 just chuckled as he walked past 1 with the twins towarsd the radio, "Oh, come on, 1. Have a little hope, will you? Young people have it all the time. Why not us old timers for a change, eh? Heheh." as the trio left, 5 finally followed after them

1 just huffed at that notion as he turned towards 9, "There's nothing out there, 9. Accept it. The only things that even have life in them are the nine of us, and any remnants of that damn monster, the BRAIN, of which is now completely turned into a lifeless husk. There's nothing left, 9. Nothing!"

"That may be," 9 agreed slightly as he placed a hand on 1's shoulder, reassuring him of his decision. "But we at least have to try something."

1 sighed in defeat as he shook his head at the last of them, "I swear I don't know what's more pointless about you: your questions or your optimism."

The first and eldest of the stitchpunks was about to abject once more, until 5 shouted, "Hey! It's working!"

The two overheard that, as did 8 as he put his sword back on his back, and strode along with the others as they huddled together around the radio. Just as they did, 7 appeared in her usual way; hoping from the globe, sliding down the side, jumping off it and landing on one of the larger piles of books. She slid down on one of them as a makeshift board, and as soon as she hit the ground, she jumped off it, and strode to the others, standing next to 9.

"What's happening? What's going on?" she asked him with a gleam of hope in her eyes.

"The radio's working again," 9 chimed up, as equally hopeful as the tow looked at the radio.

The twins joined the group as 5 and 2 started to make adjustments to the radio's settings. The speakers gave off a whirring and high pitch sound as 5 was trying to get the right volume up. "Okay, let's see here, um…" he turned it a little to the right, making a bit loud, which made a huge pitch sound that nearly blew everyone's ears off. "Oh, uh, sorry…" he apologized to everyone's dismay, and turned it back down a bit, until it was just right, "Okay. That should do it."

"And now… we scan for any open frequencies," 2 began as he walked over to the knob. "Just… gotta turn it… to the right one…"

The second elder put his cane down as he reached up with both hands and turned the knob. The radio made whirring, bleeping, and whining sounds as 2 turned the knob, trying to find any open channels at all. The other stitchpunks awaited as they watched with uneasy anticipation. In truth, they had all fought against the beasts of the Machine, and that seemed much easier for them to bear than this kind of suspense. Just hearing or watching 2 turn that knob back and forth was giving them all goose bumps on their fabric skin. The tension on all this moment was so thick, that 7 could practically cut it with her scalpel staff.

"Almost…" 2 stated to himself, not giving up on this.

Until finally, he reached a channel… with a clear voice that stated the following, "ATTENTION, ANYBODY AND ANYWHERE… COPPER ON THE RADIO, SO PLEASE DON'T POINT AND STARE. COME TO PARIS, FRANCE, WHERE WE HAVE GOOD TASTE. IF YOU WANT TO FIND SALVATION, THEN ALL MUST MOVE HERE, POST HASTE. IF WHAT YOU SEEK IS SAFETY, FOR YOU AND YOUR WHOLE FLEET. THEN PLEASE MEET COPPER AT W. MAGNUS 42 NAPOLEAN STREET. WE'LL BE WAITING…"

The stitchpunks looked at the radio, as if mesmerized as the transmission ended. Everyone was a bit quiet, even while 2 was getting down, with the help of 5, to the others. As all of them, minus 6, 1 finally shot out in confusion, "What the hell was that?"

Despite 1's outburst, it didn't deter the excitement of 9 as he strode in the center to the radio. "Paris, France," he muttered to himself as he turned to the others, "That's where we need to go to."

"Go to this… Paris place?" 1 asked aloud, earning much attention to the first stitchpunk. "We don't even know what's out there. And if there are survivors, we don't know if they'll turn on us."

"It's worth a try," 9 defended.

"But is it a try worth risking?" 1 pointed out once again, this time slamming the bottom of his staff to the ground. "Need I remind you that the last time we ventured out, it nearly wrought out our very existence."

Of course they all knew what he was talking about; when 9 and 5 went and tried to save 2 the first time. The Beast had nearly gotten all three of them, if it hadn't been for the fortunate arrival of 7. The Beast was slain, but 9 had to do the unthinkable, much to his own naïveté and curiosity: he had awoken the Fabrication Machine, and brought about both the Winged Dragon and the Seamstress upon them in the process. They had nearly lost all of them due to rushing in without knowing of the dangers to those actions.

"You're probably right. It would probably be like those first ventures," 9 replied, his voice dropping all his excitement as he became serious. He then looked to 1 and all the others as he explained, "But… but I know we can't just sit by and do nothing now. Someone's out there. Still alive and waiting for someone to answer."

"He's right," 7 stated as she stepped up. "This might be our only chance."

8 stepped up next to one, who patted his former leader on the shoulder. 1 looked up to him and saw the brute's confident smile on this, and he turned to the others. The looks on their faces were urging on this chance to find anyone that survived the war. Until finally, 1 sighed in defeat as he rubbed his face, grumbling, "I swear, I'm the more rational around here."

They all lit up at this as the destination was now underway.

"But Paris. That's… halfway from where we are," 5 pointed out, fidgeting his fingers nervously. "We wouldn't be able to get there alone on foot."

"Remember that dirigible design we had going, 5?" 2 asked his apprentice. The others looked at him, as did 5, and at that moment, a wide smile spread on the second eldest.

**

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**A Few Days Later**

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**

After much work with the stitchpunks gathering the materials needed, it was up to 2, 5, and 9 to build the machine needed to get them to Paris. With 3 and 4's help, the twins had guided the trio into finding the blueprints needed to get some sense as to what they were trying to build, as well as find the safest air route to get to this Paris place. After three days of planning, building, and packing, the nine stitchpunks had all finished their work, and stared at their wondrous new vehicle as they all stood on the roof of the library. And centered on the flat surface of the roof, their mode of transportation had finally been completed and was ready for the main voyage. The first of their vehicles that they had ever built for their tiny sized bodies.

There, standing out on the flat surface of the roof, was the vehicle that would take them all to the new city. The design was made into a sort of blimp of sorts, with added wings on it. The main body was made out of what appeared to be three plastic bleach bottles, big enough to fit not only the nine of them, but also the things they needed, which were already in the back, strapped on to the rear and into a black satchel pouch. The bottles were tied, hammered, or bolted together, made into a triangular shape, with two bottles in the rear and one bottle as the front and nose. On the front, a broken piece of windshield was placed so the pilot and co-pilot could see where they were going. Built in both the rears of the ship were two fans made into the tails of the ship to help better steer it. Keeping it landed on the ground were three legs made of erector set pieces to resemble bird legs, and with suction cups made into the feet that stuck the feet in place. The roof of the contraption was made of a small old wicker basket, tied and bolted to the bottles. On the sides of the vessel, two seven span wings were made from wire and burlap, and attached to them were mechanical muscles that would make them go up and down in a flapping motion. Attached to the sides of the ship were fireplace bellows with mechanical attachments to make them pump. And on top of the basket, a small lighter engine attachment, with on top of the balloon, floating at the top, a cloth-sewn balloon was floating above the vehicle, strapped on by four belts to hold it to the ship.

After staring and admiring the hardened joys of their ended handiwork labor, they began to prepare to pack for the long voyage to the new city world they would go into. They packed most of their essential supplies into the sack; their tools and weapons. After that, it was simply to just step on in and take off.

But not before 9 and 7 were stopped by the twins, who were blinking frantically at them both. "Whoa, whoa. Calm down, you two," 9 stated as he patted them both on the shoulders, looking at them straight in the eye. "What? What is it?"

The two blinked for a moment, until 9 asked, "6? Where is he?"

7 stepped up and looked to 9, worried, "Now that I think about it, he hasn't shown up in a while." She then gave 9 a pleading look, "9. We can't leave without him."

"I know," 9 nodded in agreement. He stepped inside the ship through the door, and spotted 5, "We can't lift off yet. Not without 6."

"9!" 7 called out as the last stitchpunk stepped out. He spotted 7 pointing to a figure walking their way. "There he is."

9, 7, and the twins took a gander, and spotted none other than 6, running clumsily towards them. Just like the others, he had added a few things to himself as well. He still retained the black key around his neck as always. But this time, he had a white hooded vest, made from a white dress glove, with only the thumb as the coat tail, and the other fingers chopped off, leaving only short sleeves to his shoulders. The vest and hood were all stained with ink, much was he himself. And around his waist, a black cloth satchel, tied only by a knot, and holding in it, a bottle of ink, iwht papers tucked in the back.

The twins ran up to their friend, stopping him midway from the blimp. 9 and 7 caught up wituh them, as did 5 as he jumped right out to join with them. As they were together now, 9 came up and asked, "6, where were you? You were missing for the whole week."

"What were you thinking?" 7 nearly but gently scolded the crazy one of their group.

"The 8... The 8..." 6 began to speak out, in his calm but sometimes shy voice.

"8?" 5 asked, slightly confused of 6's riddle talk. "But he's back on the ship."

The soothsayer stitchpunk shook his head, and pulled out a parchment for them to see. "The 8..." he then whipped it out as he stated, "The 8... that came late…"

The parchment lay open for them all to see, and the five took notice of it. It wasn't a drawing, but a list of numbers and letters that read in the following:

Au 79

Ag 47

Cu 29

Pt 78

Hg 80

Sn 50

Pb 82

Fe 26

The five stitchpunks looked at 6's work, rather confused by this latest of his sketches. The twins were busy, flashing and cataloging the numbers completely as they picked it up, scanning it completely. 9, being the most curious, asked, "The 8? 6, what do you mean?"

The crazy-looking stitchpunk was about to speak up, until 1 shouted from the dirigible, "Come on! Hurry it up! We're getting cramps just by sitting down here!"

Not wanting to argue about it, 9, 7, 6, 5, and the twins raced back to the dirigible and got on board. 3 closed the metal sheet door behind him, and locked in place with the hook and screw lock, as they all sat in and buckled up on the sponge and steel seats. 5 walked on up to the control room and sat in the co-pilot seat, while 2 sat in the pilot's seat.

2 began to work the controls as he announced to everyone in his ever-cheerful old voice, "Attention, this is the captain speaking. We'll be taking off right away, so buckle up and pray to your deity that this bird gets off the ground. We know you didn't have much choice in the matter, but thank you for choosing Air-Stitch. Ehahahaha!"

The dirigible's flames began to burn on top, creating heat in the balloon causing it to lift off the ground. The suction cup feet then retracted upward as the blimp began to take up lift once more. Then, the wings slowly flapped, gaining a bit more lift, as the bellows pushed out air to make the blimp go forward. As they all looked out through the windows, the stitchpunks, including the usual grouchy 1, cheered at this as they all steered the blimp forward, heading towards Paris, France, to where the transmission had originated from.

**

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**Next Chapter: Awaken into a World of Danger; Meeting the Golden Boy and the Copper Lass**

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**Little News here, guys. I've decided to type out a Cast List. This way, you have a general idea as to who voices them, and get a feel about their personality.**


	3. Awaken into a World of Danger

**9 Redemption and Salvation**

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**Chapter 2: Awaken into a World of Danger; Meeting the Golden Boy****

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A man, somewhere in his twenties or thirties, was concentrating hard on something direful. His face seemed haggard, pale, and his breathing was shallow and harsh, as if he was breathing with one lung. He pulled up a needle and stuck through his thread hole yellow thread… with bloody hands.

The figure then dropped a couple of metallic items made of gold, into a hot pot to melt it all down. Later, he poured some of it into mold castings, of fingers, forearms, calves and feet.

Next, he began to cut several pieces of what appeared to be burlap sack fabric. And placed the pieces next to a tiny doll-sized endo-skeleton.

His blood-stained hands were then testing what appeared to be camera shutters, about as big as a doll's eyes.

The figure then proceeded to house the gold components onto the skeleton, and began to sew on the burlap material to it.

The man then began to adjust the tiny doll's hands to ensure that the fingers were working properly.

_My teacher once told me that mankind was filled with such promise, such potential. Those words were what drove me to devote my life to science itself. To pursue knowledge we couldn't fully comprehend._

The man then began to insert the camera shutters into the eye sockets to the lifeless doll's skull on its fully completed body.

_But… I've learned harshly, that there are those who would squander the very gifts we are given. In the blind pursuit of knowledge, greed, and power… one man had brought us to our doom. _

_Though I feel that I too, am to blame, for I created the instrument that doomed this entire world. Just as my mentor had been in dooming his state._

The figure, with shaking hands now, began to write something on the doll's back. It read in black ink: Au 79.

_Our World is ending…_

_But my mentor ensured me in my letters that he will make sure that life… must go on._

The man then unzipped the doll's front, installing a wire into its chest. The man then tied both the doll's hands on two separate parts on a crucifix platform, with a small device in the front. Then, with one final motion, the man placed a familiar looking talisman on the device.

_And… just like him… I shall do the same… until my last breath…__

* * *

_

Suddenly, 6 shot up, awake from his sleep as he looked around, trying to put together the thoughts in his head. He looked around, viewing the passengers of the dirigible; his mismatched eyes scanning the ship's passengers' seats. 1 was lightly sleeping in one chair with his hat off, exposing his silly ponytail on top of his head, with his cape draped on him like a blanket, and his cane in his hands, clutched like a teddy bear. 8 was snoring loudly in the back of the blimp; his sat sprawled on the couch sized chair, snoring like crazy, with his scissor sword in his hand and a wet stone in the other. Apparently he had fallen asleep while trying to sharpen his swords up.

On the other side, the twins were sound asleep, leaning on each other. They were barely making a sound as the slept soundly; the lost time of cataloguing had taken its toll on the two small teenaged scholars. It was kinda cute to see the two like that.

And last, he saw 9 asleep as well, but with a certain someone resting their head on his shoulder. It was 7, resting peacefully and soundly next to 9. Her right hand was on top of 9's left hand as her breathing was smooth and calm. A perfect lullaby for the both of them.

However, 6's dream, or rather, vision had awoken him now as the sun began to rise up. The window had slowly shown a cloudy area, which was darkened by the night sky. However, it slowly began to lit up, indicating that morning was fast approaching. Seeing this, 6 was brought back to his thoughts from before, as he whispered while looking around suspiciously, "Gold? Gold? Gold is coming?"

* * *

**Near Paris, France**

**In the Skies****_

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_**

The dirigible soared in through the skies, as calm and serene as ever. It was nothing like the ground below; a virtual wasteland full of destruction and death. Although the clouds would blot out the sun most of the time… up here… it was shown brightly as before. Even the blue sky shown to be untouched by the post-apocalyptic world on the earth. Truly… this was what heaven looked like.

At least that's what it looked like to 5, who was still awake from his sleep. "It's amazing up here."

"Hmmm?" 2 asked, looking to his young apprentice. "What is?"

"The sky. The sun itself," 5 mused as he looked on in front. "With so much dark clouds and all the running and hiding we used to do. We never looked at it in a while. And now, up here, it's even more amazing with no clouds hiding the sky up."

2 nodded as he looked at the growing yellow sun on the horizon, lighting up the blue sky. The old man sighed in relaxation as he took the view for a while. "It sure is," he mused himself.

It was then that as the dirigible passed through the clouds, only for a moment, that's when they spotted it. As they broke through the clouds, they spotted a vast city down below. The two pilots looked down in amazement as they took a gander at front. The city was vast and exotic, built with river bridges running all through it. And then they spotted the giant iron tower in the distant, where the sun gleamed on its tip and side, silhouetting it and making it stand out like a monument of the once beautiful city of love. Despite the ruined state that it was in, it was vastly beautiful.

The two stitchpunks that flew the vessel were so entranced by this, that they failed to notice the blinking light on the console. It was only when 1 popped in, from waking up by the light that pierced through the window, did he break their stare.

"1, you're awake," 5 replied startled as he tried to act busy. "I, um… I was just…"

"What's that?" he stated pointing at the blinking red light. "And why is it blinking like that?"

5 took notice of it as he stated, "Oh, um. The red light's usually a notice of some sort of malfunction. don't forget, this is the first time we had this ship flown, so there's bound to be a glitch or two on the first run."

"Well, what sort of glitch?" the eldest stitchpunk asked annoyed.

2 looked out from the side window, and then up at the ceiling window. He adjusted the lens to get a more clearer view, and answered, "I think the ship's run out of fuel."

1 and 5 looked to 2 confused, as 1 asked with a cocked eyebrow and his eyes slitted, "What makes you say that?"

"Well for one, the furnace has stopped burning," 2 pointed out as he literally pointed at the balloon for the others to see. "And the wings have stopped flapping," the second elder stated as he then pointed at the wings, and sure enough they stopped flapping altogether.

The three stitchpunks looked worried on all this; they had no fuel and they were slowly drifted into the city with no way to go down at all. However, 5 shrugged as he nervously tried to make things bright for them, "Well, at least we're still in the air."

However, 5's words would soon to be proven wrong at that moment. On one of the buildings, a figure which appeared to be a four-year-old child… and yet it wasn't… looked up at the sky and noticed the small flying dirigible. The hunched figure breathed out in a raspy and trembling tone, almost as if it was in a great deal of pain. In the darkened silhouette, a lone red eye glowed brightly, staring at the balloon. A machine gun suddenly moved into position, carefully aiming at the blimp… and fired a barrage of bullets at the balloon, and the vessel's main hold.

Back on the dirigible, the blimp had been violently struck by an unknown force. The force caused the stitchpunks to wake up in a surprised but calm panic.

8 shot up as he nearly bumped his head into the roof. He looked around, frantically as he tried to swing his sword around but managed to miss everyone. 3 and 4 got up as well, looking around in unison with their eyes blinking like crazy. 7 got up as up, jumping on to her feet, as she looked to the others in their panicked state. 9 shot up as well, looking at the scene as well, as even noticed a few smoking holes in the ship as well.

Hoping to gain some order again, 7 shouted, "Everyone, calm down! Now!"

The others immediately stopped at this, finally calmed down, as 9 raced to the cockpit. There he spotted 2 and 5 doing their best at the controls to steady the now descending vessel. And 1 was clutching onto 2's chair, as frightened as ever.

"What's going on?" 9 asked them as he ran over to them holding on to both seats and looking at both of them. "Why's the ship…?"

"Well, 9," 2 stated as he tried to right the controls as best he could. "It's either the 4th of July… or someone's trying to kill us!"

"I can pick a guess it's the latter," 1 cried out as he gripped both the chair and cane frantically.

"But we do have good news and bad news," 5 stated, trying to hide his fear at this moment. "The good news is that we'll be landing shortly down below."

"And what's the bad news?" 9 asked, not sure if he'd like the answer.

"The bad news is…" 5 stated calmly, until he finally screamed in a mass panic, "… WE'RE CRASH LANDING!!!"

With hearing that tidbit of news, 9 raced back into the passenger's compartment. There, he held onto the door railing, and immediately started ordering the others, "Everyone! Buckle up tight! It's gonna be a rough landing!"

The ship spiraled downward into the ruins of what was once the City of Love. The ship's bottom scrapped across the surface of the roofs of the buildings it traveled under, indicating that they were descending pretty fast. The ship then crashed into one of the roofs, splitting the ship in half forcefully. Those who were strapped in the back, 8, 6, and the twins… they were sent out flying behind.

"No!" 7 shouted as she tried to get out of her seat.

However, her seat was next to go, as she was sent flying out as well, skidding across the nearby rooftop of a former restaurant.

"7!" 9 shouted, attempting to try and follow after her. However, only he, 2, 5, and 1 immediately crashed down below.

The dirigible skidded onto the roofs, until finally, it was sent falling down into the cracked opening of a rooftop. There, it disappeared into the darkness, along with 1, 2, 5, and 9 for the ride. Until finally, a loud crash took in effect as to indicate if they kept falling or not. Obvious from the crash, it was the latter.

From the post to where the gun shots were fired, a howling inhuman scream echoed there.**_

* * *

_**

**_Later On_**

**_Elsewhere_**

**_

* * *

_**

In a quaint house, nearly dust-filled, and brown in all its colors in the dark, only one item glistened brightly. There, on a lab table, with beakers, tools, fabrics, and a few papers, was a platform of sort on the table. There, hanging on only one thread around his wrist, slowly coming undone by swinging back and forth by the wind, a small stitchpunk hung there lifeless.

It was obviously male due to his slim build and otherwise model shape; his top was thin but strong, while his bottom half looked like they were puffy pants of sorts. His design was similar to 9's in that his skin was made of perfect burlap fabric, and a copper zipper went from his pelvis to his neck. His hands were a perfect combination of carved wood for the knuckle base and a metal for the fingers. But this one was different… much different. His stitching was bright yellow on his body and for his eyebrows, and the fabric stopped on his elbows and knees. His forearms and calves, toes and fingers were made entirely of gold. And on his back, was written in thin black ink: Au 79, with Au on top and the numbers under them.

The new stitchpunk just hung there, with only one rope around his right wrist. He just dangled there, all lifeless and a complete lump with not even a twitch of movement. The only thing that moved was his body, lightly swinging from the wind blowing on him, and the rope that held him in place, barely holding on to a thin line of string.

Then suddenly… SNAP!

The rope snapped in half, sending the body falling down to the desk at hand. But as it did, the body smacked the frame in front of it, knocking a familiar-looking talisman out of place. The body then crashed onto the floor along with the talisman; the stitchpunk's rag doll body limp and sprawled on it, with the talisman rolling on the wooden surface until it too fell flat on the desk.

The golden stitchpunk lay dead for a moment, on its back with its right arm on his chest and the rest of him sprawled out. Until finally… his eyes flickered awake, indicating that he was just dormant for some odd reason.

He slowly got up into a sitting position, trying to shed off the feeling of grogginess from his mind. He groaned as he rubbed his head with his right hand. But when he touched his eye with his hands, he heard a tiny clanking sound. He blinked his eyes in confusion to that, and was even more confused when he heard the sound of his eyes closing and opening. It sounded like a sort of clicking sound; the king you'd hear a camera lens make when it took a picture.

He pulled back his hand, and was amazed at seeing a metallic and wooden hand as his own. The wrist was steel, but the part connecting it to his hand was made of gold and the knuckle base made of carved wood. And his fingers, were gold as well, which added much confusion to the young lad.

Wait! Where did those words come from within his mind? Gold, wood, and how did he even know that this was his own hand?

And even much weirder… he saw that his chest and stomach were opened… by a zipper. And sticking out of it was what appeared to be a cable, acting as some sort of mechanical umbilical cord. Immediately, he yanked it out, slightly freaked about this revelation. And then peeked inside of his body, witnessing an endoskeleton made of both steel and gold, along with wires and gears acting as his organs. The little stitchpunk was still having trouble trying to piece all this together, as he didn't know what was going on.

It was then that he greatly noticed the object that lightly sparked a bit of green lightning from itself. His sight caught the talisman with much curiosity, and an unknown feeling of caution when seeking it out. What was it? Why would he feel it to be important? Those were answers that he needed to get answered and be done with it.

Slowly, and very cautiously, he slowly began to stand up on his feet and legs… for the first time. At first, he stumbled a bit, not able to well-balance himself on his new legs. Now, walking rather clumsy-ish, he stumbled/lumbered on over to the strange object. Finally, he stood straight up, then bent down, and picked up the strange talisman.

Picking it up and holding it with both hands, he knelt over to give his still-growing strong legs some time to get used to the whole walking and standing stuff. As he knelt down, he took the time to carefully look over the strange object he had aqquired. A confused and yet concentrating look on his face appeared as he tried to make sense of the talisman in his hands.

His brow furrowed as he carefully examined the bronze and copper talisman. So far, the object was smooth and cold in his metallic molded fingers, and the lines formed three individual triangles that were shaped together into a circle. On the talisman, strange glyphs were carved practically on every corner, though only three prominent ones were sent in the center of each of the three divided triangles. The golden fingers traced over the symbols and the edges between them.

It was so strange to him… why was this object so important to him at all? Why did it feel important to him?

It was just then, that he got a good look at himself in the talisman's reflection. Amazed and shocked by his appearance, he was no means a human, despite the frame that he was built in. it was all too painfully obvious that he was even too small to even be embraced by a child; he was some sort of odd thing between a rag doll and a cybernetic being. Just what on earth was he? Why was he here? And more importantly… was he the only one of his kind?

He then pulled himself back on his feet, now feeling a bit more stronger on his legs. He got a good look around the room, as if trying to understand as to who it was that created him. From around the room, much to his small doll sized body, he saw everything. The room had bookshelves littered with books and strange scientific nicknacks. A chalkboard was in the corner with scribbles and cobwebs on it. Even on the desk he stood on, tools, papers, and fabrics along with metals lay on it. Clearly, this must have been some sort of lab; but from the looks of things, it hadn't been used in a very long… long time.

It was then, he heard the sounds of paper being blown lightly in the wind. He looked around to see where it was coming from, and came to look down at the ground. There, halfway covered in paper, was what appeared to be the body of a giant before him down below on the floor. He was dressed in some lab coat of sorts, though it was pretty hard to get a good look at him considering some of the papers covered his face. His body's skin color seemed to be a deathly pale of sorts; his whole body was skinny enough to see his skeleton underneath the skin.

At first, the gold stitchpunk thought the man was just asleep… until he noticed a puddle of dried up blood seeping from underneath the body, as well as a pair of bloody papers on the body's lower back.

The gold stitchpunk stepped back, seemingly startled by seeing a dead body for the first time. Luckily, something came up to detour his fear of the corpse in the massive giant room. He jumped as soon as he heard a loud shudder. He slowly turned, and noticed a window covering, with light behind it that brought a little luminance to the darkened room. Curious and without fear on this, he walked over to investigate.

In front of him were books messily stacked atop each other, making a makeshift bridge from the desk to the window sill. Using his newfound strength, he walked and climbed atop the books, creeping ahead with the talisman still in his right hand. He swiftly ran down and up the books, making sure not to fall until he had reached the frame of the window.

He triumphantly stood at the window now; the window quaking again from the wind outside. Mustering all courage available at this time, the gold stitchpunk put his hands carefully on the frame of the window. Just by being near it, he felt a cold wind hit both the cracks of the window, as well as his fabric exterior. He then pushed against it, putting all his weight on the wood. He didn't have to put much effort on it, as the window successfully swung open, revealing the world outside the darkened lab room.

Righting himself again, he gazed out at this new world he had awakened into… and looked downdraught at the sight that fell to him. The world was empty and desolate; almost a post-apocalyptic wasteland that was once a beautiful city of love and arts. The sky was covered in dark and gray clouds, blocking out most of the sun and blue skies. The buildings all around were in disrepairs; holes blown into them, half were nearly half-demolished, barely standing as it was. Cars, trucks, or any sort of vehicle were just strewn around, either crashed or just rusting in place. The roads were half-destroyed from some sort of explosions or something. Half the road was littered with piles of junk, and on one pile, noticed a strange looking automaton, half-destroyed and just lying there, broken.

As he looked around this world, he had to think to himself: What happened that would turn like this into a virtual ghost town and tomb?

However, his thought were interrupted, as he heard the sounds of footsteps… and voices. He looked around in complete confusion until his eyes stopped downward down at the streets. There, four small figures walked along as a group, with the leader holding a cane that just lit up a path for them. He squinted his eyes to try and get a better look, but the figures were just too far away.

Attempting to get their attention, he opened his mouth to give a shout out to them, but nothing came out… not even a squeak or a wheeze. His eyebrow cocked out in frustration, realizing he couldn't say a word, much alone shout out a complete sentence. His free hand touched his throat, a questioned look on his face. He soon realized that the fact he didn't have a voice of his own, meant this would be a problem for him in the future.

Noticing the four figures were walking away, the golden stitchpunk wasn't about to lose them yet. He placed the talisman gently insdie his opening and zipped up the piece of metal holding himself together. He then turned around, and jumped off the sill and onto the table, and on to the floor.

He looked back at the corpse of whoever it was that lay there, and just walked past it without even considering a second thought about it. He wasn't planning around to stick around and figure out what or who that was, or how he got there. He had another priority in mind. He immediately broke out into a sprint and headed out the doorway and find a way outside.

However, as the little stitchpunk disappeared, he had failed to notice something about the body. As it lied on the floor, covered by his left hand, as well as a blueprint entitled Au 79: Gold, a small music box was noticed, being clutched protectively by the body's hand… and had a tag, reading: Gold.

**

* * *

**

Outside

* * *

The golden stitchpunk had reached outside of the half-ruined building. It was a tad bit difficult, what with hopping down one chunk of wooden stairway after another. His fears were soon forgotten, as he realized he wasn't the only one in this world. Now, more than ever, he was hoping to catch up to them.

As he finally got to the last stair and hit cold hard dirt, the talking and light had disappeared. Replaced with total silence, save for the wind blowing eerily and light thunder heard from the sky. The gold stitchpunk looked around, his eyes darting from one direction to the other as he started to make his way down the street. He now realized his fears had returned; now that he was out of the room, he was vulnerable to whoever… or whatever… might be lurking. He berated himself in the head, thinking to himself that this was a dumb idea to just dart outta there.

But he couldn't let his fears get to him like this. He had to find that light and whoever had it, so he continued on. It was strange to the stitchpunk; the barren city hugged itself in fear of… something. It was almost as if there was some sort of creature hunting those who were dumb enough to be outside. The golden doll sighed in worry, rubbing his arm to try and fight this shiver down his spine.

Finally, to distract him from his uneasiness, he noticed an inhuman form of sorts. Curiously and cautiously creeping around a large object that somehow seemed out of place in this organized world, he looked in side the large opening. There, sitting in the corner of the mighty device, he noticed two giant human creatures were huddled together, their skin tight and poisoned.

To him they were much larger, like tall slumbering giants. The smaller one sat around the taller one's lap and latched it by the neck tightly, as if they tried to comfort one another for their now gone lives. He thought that they might have been asleep, but as he looked at the skin tone, he realized the obviousness of the truth: they were dead.

He then took a gander at one corner of the truck. There, trapped in the rubble, flapping in the wind were some sort of flyers. They all had the same thing: fists crushing what appeared to be machine men in their grips, with the word, REVOLT, written on top. It was clear to the stitchpunk that there might have been some sort of war that led to this.

He stumbled back, startled at this whole realization: everything in this town, this city… perhaps all the world, was full of the dead. And if that was so… then what was he? Why was only he alive? And if what he saw was true, were there others like him that could survive in this desolate and lifeless world?

But before he could figure out anything else, he spotted the light, nearly blinding him from atop the rubble of junk behind him from afar. He froze, his gaze darting around to find a place to hide at this point. While he looked around, he heard those same voices, shouting,

"Hey! Who are you? What are you doing down there!?!"

"9? What is it?"

"Someone's down there!"

Not waiting to find out who or what it was, the golden stitchpunk bolted behind a tall chunk of what appeared to be gravel. Now he started to regret leaving the lab even more; he had no idea of these guys, if they were people at all, were even friendly, let alone try and tear him apart while he was still alive. He noticed the light was coming closer; it's source was ever coming closer, and with it, four sets of footsteps. His feet felt something next to him and his view snapped down. It appeared to be a wrench of sorts, big enough to be a club or staff of sorts. He bent down and grabbed it by both hands, holding it like a baseball bat, and prepared for whatever was coming towards him.

Cautiously, he watched the light, which was now projecting on the gravel in front of his hiding spot. Between the holes of the debris, he saw shapes. He really didn't care what they looked like at this time. All he knew was that his life might have been in danger. His breath quickened as the light stepped so close he could hear a voice about to speak in normal volume,

"Hello?"

He shut his eyes tightly, and swung around the corner, cleaving whoever it was straight in the face. The light was out, and once again it was dark.

He swung back around the corner, sighing in relief but still in fear as to what was going on. However, he heard a low groan caught his attention, as well as another voice, "Wh-Who's back there? Show yourself. I've got a crossbow…"

"5, don't. I think he's afraid," a gentler voice spoke out, reasoning with the one that sounded just as scared as he was. "I remember when 9 first ventured out; he was as jittery as a June Bug."

"Yeah, but now I know how it feels," another voice spoke out.

But then, another voice shouted out in a demanding tone, "Oh, spare the trip down memory lane. You there! Show yourself! We're not waiting all day!"

Slightly confused about the voices, he took a peek at the sources of the four voices behind his corner.

And the four looked at him.

He immediately swung back around, clutching his weapon.

"Wait!"

He froze. One of the things… had spoke. It said a word. It had a VOICE!

"…we mean you no harm. We're friends."

He looked back around the corner in his surprise, the weapon dropping from his now loose fingers. The things that he had thought would hurt him… were rag dolls just like him. The first one seemed to be held together by straps, looking a bit crude in design. The other, a bit kinder-looking fellow, had a candlestick holding hat on his head. The other two, with one missing an eye, and the other, the one he had smacked across the face, had some sort of light bulb staff.

Realizing what he had done, he dropped the wrench, and immediately helped the one had he had struck down. As soon as things were right again, 9 smiled at the new stitchpunk they had met. "I was right," he smiled as he looked to the others, and to the golden stitchpunk. "I knew someone had to have sent that transmission." 9 then chuckled as he smiled to their newest comrade, hopefully friend, "I'm sorry. I'm just excited that we've met another one. We'll, a new one considering that you weren't made by the scientist that made us. I'm 9." he then pointed to the others respectively, "This is 5 and 2. The grumpy one is… well, 1, obviously."

As 9 straightened up, 2 looked to him, his eyes not as wide as his grin. He laughed lowly, moving the glass lens closer to get a better look at the golden newcomer.

"Ever since that radio transmission, I'd always hoped…" He said airily, still laughing as he walked carefully around him, looking at his font, side, back, and side again. "So… you're name is Au 79. Or Gold." The golden stitchpunk, or Gold as he now knew his name, cocked an eyebrow in confusion as the elder chuckled, "Au 79 is the periodic name for Gold. It's written on your back."

He gave the new one a questioning look, but he simply continued his inspection. He picked over everything, beaming as he looked to the thread hold his arm up and laughing as he gently touched his hand. The others, minus 1, were chuckling at Gold's awkwardness of the moment, as 2 examined the new one. His hands were gentle and slow as he carefully moved, his voice comforting and rough.

"Your creature put in so much thought...The details… hand stitched… Carved wood… Molded gold on the fingers, the forearms, the calves and toes! My goodness, you're just like 9. The best one yet…" He said, looking back up to him with an eager smile. "I'm 2. Excuse me for being so ecstatic… We almost thought the signal that was out may have been a recording. But here you are…"

1 cocked an eyebrow at the boy, and walked behind him, taking notice of something. "What's this?" the elder asked as he used his cane to point at the back of Gold's head.

2 and the others looked behind him… and noticed in the back of the skull, a jack port was exposed on the back of his skull. 2 cocked an eyebrow as he looked to Gold, asking himself, "I wonder what was supposed to go there?" He looked to Gold in the eyes and asked, "Do you know?"

He gave 2 a questioning look, and mouth several words as he ushered to his throat. 2 looked a bit dumbstruck.

"You… can't speak?" He asked, and was responded with a shaking of the head. The being put his hand to his chin thoughtfully, and looked to the large metal piece. He glanced to him. "May I?"

But before anyone could do anything, 1 shoved in, "We don't have the time for this. We still need to look for the source of that transmission."

"But…"

"No butts!" 1 demanded as he stomped the ground with his cane. "Don't forget, the others are somewhere out there. If they have any brains in them at this point, then they'll be heading to where the same place is."

The three stitchpunks, plus the new one, looked to each other in trying to agree with this. Gold nodded, thinking it might be a good idea to find their friends. Then 9 looked to the others as they started to go, "Come on, let's find this Napoleon St. If the others are going there, then we need to rendezvous as well."

The now five stitchpunks were on their way, heading to the source of the transmission. Unaware that a dangerous-looking fellow was stalking them, silently following them to their destination.

**

* * *

**

Next Chapter: The Copper Lass; the Beast named Grendel


	4. The Copper Lass

**9 Redepmtion and Salvation**

* * *

**Chapter 3: the Copper Lass; the Beast named Grendel**

* * *

**Napoleon St.**

**Eiffel Radio Station**

* * *

It had been a long and enduring walk through the ruins of what was once the Proud and Beautiful City of Love, but the five stitch punks had come all this way victoriously. 1, 2, 5, 9, and now Gold, had traversed their way to the point they believed could have been where the transmission had originated from. The building was called the Eiffel Radio Station, considering the worn out sigh that was only hanging on one hinge, bend down in an angle. The towers and satellites on the rooftop were still in place, although time had caused them to nearly rust over, and were hanging on barely on to the bolts that held them in place. Wires and cables stuck out of the windows from the Third Floor, indicating someone had done a lot of work in the place, still putting it to good use. If there was any evidence that this was the place, this was it.

2 adjusted his lens as he got a good look at the building and the wiring. "Perfect height, excellent use of the building's power systems, all concentration in one area and use, even the number of satellites and antennas is a good factor to consider," he analyzed aloud as he looked at the building. "All in all, this is definitely a good place to send a transmission."

"Think anyone's gonna be in there," 5 asked, still feeling a little twitchy about all this.

9 looked upward at the building, and to his light bulb staff. He sighed heavily, hardening his resolve, as he stepped forward, "Only one way to find out."

The other three followed as 9 led the way in finding a way inside the building. As the three followed, Gold stood for a moment, admiring 9's courage and determination. There was no question as to why he or the others saw him as the leader; he had this sort of compassion for others, as well as a boundless courage that seeped through the doll's body. He just couldn't help but admire that kind of quality, and wished in some ways, even though he had awoken in this world, that he could have just been brave as this. He believed that in a world like this, only the strong and the brave could survive, and more than anything, he wanted to be that strong and brave.

"Gold!" 2 called out to him, as the elder Stitchpunk waved for him. "C'mon! we found a way in!"

Gold immediately rushed on over to the others, after being snapped out of his daze. As the five stitchpunks looked around into the way in, a shadowed beastlike apparition hovered from one of the roofs above them.

* * *

**Inside**

**Third Floor**

* * *

The five stitchpunks had climbed up the stairwells, easily despite the size factor. The floorboards were strewn with wires and broken enough to make climbing rocks and steps for them. Locating to where they were broadcasting the message wasn't the hardest search task for any of them. The wires and cables were all heading in one direction; it was an unmistakable trail for them to follow. And the main room to which they were now entering, with 5 in lead with his crossbow and 9 with his art tool dagger, in case of any dangers.

What the five found was a complete mess of machinery rewired on one of the radio phone stations. All the wires were conglomerated, glued, or even duck-taped together. The whole scene looked like they were massive tree roots and vines, all connecting to one portion of the room: the Radio broadcasting control tables.

The stitchpunks stopped to look at the towering structure, and to each other at this moment.

"Looks like to know whoever sent that broadcast is to go up there," 2 pointed out as he pointed up to the table.

"You're right," 9 agreed as he sheathed his blade back in place. He looked around and saw some of the cables going upward to the desk, and pointed out, "We could climb up on those."

5 slung his crossbow on his back and looked to their newest member, "Think you're up to a little climbing?" Gold looked up at the wires, and then to himself, almost examining himself to see if he were ready for climbing. He looked to 5 and sheepishly grinned and finished with a nod. This earned a smile from 5 as well, "Thought so."

"Well, forget it," 1 stubbornly rebutted, as he crossed his arms with his trademark scowl. "I refuse to go climbing about some foolhardy excavation, where there is obviously another means to get up there."

2 walked over to the first Stitchpunk in order to convince him, "But 1, there's no…"

"I said forget it!" 1 shot back, causing 2 to back away for a moment as 1 huffed and turned the other way. "I'm not going up there, and there's nothing in Heaven nor on this ruined Earth that will make me budge from this spot!"

The four looked to 1 in slight confusion and defeat at this predicament. Then they turned to one another as they silently contemplated on a solution to this problem. Then after a few seconds, they looked to 1, whose back was still turned on them, and they all had a reassured small smile on a solution.

------

"This! Is! An outrage!" the elder Stitchpunk continued to shout out in disapproval, "I refuse to be carried up in such an undignified manner!!"

"Oh, come now," 2 beam-fully scolded 1, "At least you're not the one doing the climbing." All that earned from 1 was a huff as the two were just silent, with 2 chuckling quietly to himself.

But still, 1 continued to shout out his disapprovals as he struggled with the leather strap around his waist, dangling off the ground with 2 along next to him, as the three other younger stitchpunks had belts strapped to one another. This allowed the perfect way to carry the two elder stitchpunks to be carried up with the other three.

As the five were traversing upward, they didn't notice on one of the record shelves something small move. Shadowing the figure, the only thing that could be seen were small fingers made of ball pen tips. Then the figure moved back into the shadows… with a moving opposable cat tail.

As soon as the five were up on the desk, they had a good view of the operating controls. Many of the wires were connected to the wall controls which had all the wires and switches. All the keyboard controls were a bit dusty, and a flexible lamp had been made into a platform control that would allow whoever it was that used it to go from the wall to the keyboard, as well as to another portion of the table. Next to a few plug cables, were a few radio station phonographs.

… and the big mystery, was that one of them was still operating, despite the needle had been moved off the record.

The five stood their position as they each looked around the room, seeing if anyone, if at all anyone, was there. So far, nothing moved around the place, except for the record player. However, the attention was brought to Gold as he heard papers rustling from the other side of the room. On a table where a lot of papers and records were, he thought he saw something pounce off the table in the corner, right in the shadows. For a moment, he thought it was something with a tail of sorts. He slowly walked over to where the record players were, as 9 and the others were still looking around.

"We should split up," 9 suggested to the others as he turned his light staff on. "If anyone sees anything, or anyone, we all come running back at this spot."

2 and 5 nodded in agreement, but 1 just huffed as he supported himself on his cane. He then walked past 9, grumbling, "I'll scout on around to find a safe place for us to hide in, should the company we find prove dangerous."

As the others looked around, Gold continued to look around as well. While he looked through the area he was in, he heard a rustling of papers not too far away from him. He turned in that general direction, looking at to where a few broken records were topped on themselves, as were a few broken microphones and big earphones. He looked in confusion, thinking that maybe it was his mind playing tricks.

Suddenly, he heard rustling again, and turned to see a few street flyers strewn together in a pile. But what caught his interest, was when a few slowly start to settle down. Gold looked at the pile for a moment, thinking it was just his scared mind playing tricks on him. Until he saw movement in the papers; a small lump moving about, twitching side by side. He gupled at this, not sure of what to make of this if he should run or warn the others.

But he shook his head, telling himself that he wasn't about to just run like a coward. Searching around himself, he saw one of the record pieces, as big as a hand held dagger. Immediately, he knelt down and grabbed it, bolting right back up and holding it in defense skittishly in his shaking hands. Nervously and cautiously, he walked forward with the weapon in hand, towards the lump in the papers.

He continued to make his way to it, fully realizing that this could very well be dangerous. He had only been awake in this world for only a day, and he had no idea what was out there. From what 9 and the others talked about with him, was that there were once beasts out there that hunted them down. All of them, sent by a Machine, bent on killing them and taking their souls for itself. But that fear was put aside, as he heard 5 and 2 talking about how they learned that it was 9 that killed the Machine once and for all. But one of the bigger worries was that there might have been some remaining machine beasts running around, without the Machine giving it orders, and would continue to hunt them down no matter what.

Right now, Gold was praying that this wasn't one of them.

He slowly stopped at the edge of the paper, and suddenly the little lump stopped moving altogether, almost looking right at him. Gold gulped at this turn of events, the record piece was grasped on tightly in his hands as he attempted to step forward, in perhaps a futile attempt to either fight or kill the beast. But in the back of his mind he wasn't really sure if it was a beast at all.

But all that changed as soon as something popped out of the papers. There, sticking out of the pile, was a flexible cat tail made entirely out of copper, twitching around moving all over the place like a periscope. It moved around, almost looking for something, until its tip was pointed right into Gold's direction. It was almost as if it could see him at this moment, and then in a split second it sunk back into the papers.

Gold stepped back as he noticed the papers weren't moving anymore. He looked to where the others would have been, and attempted to shout out to warn them all. But as before, nothing came out of his throat at all, despite him knowing he had no voice. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to run for help, as the papers suddenly exploded, and something immediately pounced on him.

Not far away, the other stitchpunks heard the crashing sound, accompanied by what they could only describe as the sound of a child's laughter.

5 and 9, being the only young and armed ones there, raced to the source of the laughter. 5, thinking that Gold might have been in danger, immediately loaded his crossbow as he shouted, "GOLD! Don't worry, we're coming to save you!!!"

"Just keep fighting," 9 shouted as he brought out both his light staff and his dagger.

When they turned the corner, they immediately were a bit dumbfounded as to what they were looking at. They lowered their weapons and sweat dropped at the new… and somewhat bizarre… scene that took place before them.

There, sitting on top of their newest member and friend, was a small stitchpunk, possibly about a quarter inch smaller than Gold or the others. It was obvious that she was designed differently than him as well. She was of female design, thin with a slender figure, but unlike the others, her thighs were thin instead of puffy, and the cloth, which was light brown burlap sack material, at her knees were over her knees like jean shorts that would show off her calves. But the odd thing about her, was the copper made flexible cat tail built right into her butt, right to where the tail bone should be. As for the copper pieces, her forearms, calves, toes, hands, eyes, and even her ball pen fingertips were made all of copper. She had on an orange tattered miniskirt, with a white cloth belt that had a clip on button, with a dirty brown phany pack. Around her waist, going from her hips to the bottom of a ribcage, was a thin bar of copper wrapped around her like a metal necklace band. She wore a tattered sleeveless reddish orange shirt, that was only held at the sides by a single piece of twisty tie wire, that slightly exposed her skin. On both her forearms were baggy pieces of reddish orange cloth, as the same was on her ankles to make it look like shoes. Sewn on to the shirt was an orange glove wrist piece made into a scarf, with a metal clip on button in the center of it. Sewn or grafted into her head were reddish orange bits of copper shavings made into short and long pieces of hair, with two long bangs on the sides to where two small golden rings were pierced on the sides to where ears should have been, and on top of her head, one gold ring was pierced on the left side of her head, while on the right, a golden triangle was pierced on the other, making it look like she had cat or bear ears. And on her left thigh, exposed by the skirt, was the numerical formula, Cu 29, in black ink.

The girl stitchpunk was giggling with excitement as she lightly touched Gold by the face, carefully examining him with laughter in her voice and a smile on her face, "GREAT, GREAT, GREAT!!! Fantastic, Smash-tastic! Others, others came and answered Copper's message, message!" Gold immediately pushed her off a little as he got back on to his feet, but was glomped on by the girl, whose obvious name was Copper, and stayed latched on to him as she squealed in glee, "Oooh, Copper just wants to hug and squeeze new found friend…!"

However, she soon stopped for a moment, as she caught a glimpse over Gold's shoulder to beheld a new sight. There, standing in complete confusion, were 9 and 5, a bit flabbergasted by this scene. Then finally, 2 and 1 came running to catch up with them, as 2 was obviously out of breath. Now, four new stitchpunks had entered into the copper lass's sights. If it were any possible, Copper's eyes could have widened at this very moment at beholding this many new faces.

Finally, 9 was the first to speak out, as he let a small shy wave escape him, as did a soft voiced response, "Uh… hi?"

At that very moment, Copper let out a high-pitched squeal of joy, "EEEEEEEEEEE!!!" and jumped off Gold, as she bolted right at the four, spiraling all around them each.

She immediately pounced around 9, scanning him so much that it nearly made him dizzy. She was so fast at this, that she pulled down his zipper, causing him to jump in embarrassed shock.

She then ran to 5, as he yelped as well as she circled around him constantly. She finally jumped on to his shoulders, causing him to cry out in a panic as he tried to shake her off. She began to poke at his patched eye, and jumped off as her tail swatted him in the face by accident.

She immediately zoomed over to 2, who seemed to actually enjoy the girl's hyper attitude and enthusiasm. However, when she got to 1, he really didn't like the obvious attention as she played with his cape, and attempted to grab his hat. "Hey! Wait! Stop! Will you…!?" 1 grumbled and fought as he tried to pull her away from him with much effort, but to no avail.

Finally, she pulled away from all of them as she cat-crouched in the middle of all of them. She immediately pounced up to one of the record players as she cried out in joy, "Celebration for new friends, friends! AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

She then grabbed the record player needle and pulled it on the record. It immediately began to play the song, _Burnin' Love_. The others were a bit confused by the behavior of their newest discovered friend. But 2 just seemed to enjoy the girl's company as he laughed, "Haha. I'm starting to like this girl already." both 9 and 5 had to laugh at this, while Gold silently chuckled.

However, 1 just huffed as he crossed his arms, "_You _would."

"Come on, everyone," Copper cried out in joy to everyone as she hopped off her feet, and started running on her hands on the record as it kept going. "Dance, Dance, with Copper, Copper! Hehehehahaha!" however, she immediately hopped back on to her feet, as she let the record turned her all 360 degrees until she hopped off the record, looking at the others puzzled, especially to Gold as he didn't seem to do a lot of talking.

She immediately bolted right to him as she cocked her head, walking towards her new friend as he almost seemed to shy away from her. "Gold, Gold?" Copper asked, sounding a bit depressed at the lack of speech from him, "Why won't Gold, Gold say anything to Copper, Copper?"

Gold shook his head as he lightly tapped his throat, with his mouth wording what he should have said to her. She cocked her sewn eeybrow as sh easked, "Your throat's broken?"

"He can't talk," 9 defended as he walked next to her, "He doesn't have a voice. At least not until we find him one."

Copper looked to 9 and then looked back to Gold. She then zoomed up to him, catching him by surprise, immediately zipped his zipper down, and plunged her head and hands inside. Gold and the others were a bit freaked out by this scene, until she finally pulled out with a smile, "I've got just the thing, to help make you sing."

And with that, she zoomed out towards a corner, and the sounds of rummaging began to take place. As the rummaging and crashing could be heard, the others seemed a bit in pondered thoughts aloud about their new friend. However, 1's thoughts were the loudest, "We should get out of here, right now."

"Why?" 9 asked, "We just found…"

"Because she's a lunatic," 1 finally pounded out as he slammed his cane's end into the ground, "She's some kind of a wild child! We're better off…!"

"FOUND IT!!!" Copper shouted as she jumped back to them like a cat would. She then stood back on her feet as she held up what appeared to be the voice box of a small doll. "Don't worry, this will make you sing, Gold, Gold," Copper Copper collects, collects, collects stuff that makes sounds, you see, and these are treasures for Copper."

And then surprising Gold once again, she dug into his chest, slamming the device into the center of his ribcage, nearly taking the wind out of him. She then began to mess with several cords; Gold felt the shocks through him.

"Now let me see…" Copper said slowly in a singing tone. Gold looked down at her, letting out high pitched cracks, in an annoyed tone. She cocked an eyebrow as she continued to fiddle with him, "No, no. not there yet…"

A few garbled and angered words escaped Gold's mouth, as Copper sung to herself, "Closer, closer…" A hiccup of a deepened crack, "Littler more, little more, little, little, little more…" A hiss and then static, "Aaaaaand…"

"… Will you stop that!?!" Gold finally shouted out in annoyance, but was finally surprised as he touched his thorat, "Is… is that my voice?"

2 smiled proudly as he walked over to Copper and patted her on the head, much like you would a kitten, "Well done, child."

Copper smiled sweetly, looking up to the newborn, who beamed happily as she twirled giggling to him, "Ahaha! Copper fixed Gold, Gold's voice!"

But she stopped for a moment, as she peered once again in Gold's innards. "What's this…?" she asked, looking up to him.

Gold looked down in surprise, as did 9 and the others, but she reached inside him, surprising Gold, and took out the shiny half-orb that he had found in his birth room. 9 and the others had a surprised look on their faces as they saw the exact copy of their Talisman, but Copper was beaming with joy, who let out an exclaim of joy.

"Where'd you get that?" 9 asked their new friend.

"That?" Gold asked as he pointed to the talisman that Copper held on to as she twirled around giggling, "Oh, I found that when I woke up. It was lying about a few feet from me." He scratched the back of his head as he confessed, "I don't know, it just seemed important to bring with me at the time."

"You found it! Found it! Found it!!!" she said, giggling with a smile on her face. She looked between it and her new friends before her, "Tina, Tina! She's always dreaming and drawing! Always the same thing! This is it!"

"Wait, wait," 5 stopped her, getting her attention to him as he asked, "Tina? You mean there are more? More of you?"

Copper shook her head playfully as she answered, "No, silly. There's only one Copper. But if you mean friends, then yes. Lots more."

"Really?" 5 beamed out with a hope-filled smile, as did 2 and 9, but 1 just had an interested cocked eyebrow at this.

9 and Gold gave the little one an inquisitive look, but their happy moment died down. For at that moment, a low rumble took away all their attention and they all looked around in a nervous interest. But Copper… she seemed to be more afraid of the growl than anyone else. Immediately, she bolted behind 2 and whimpered like a scared little mouse, peeking from behind 2's side.

Slowly, his gaze returned to Copper as Gold asked nervously, "Are… Are we alone?"

Copper shook her head in fear, whimpering out in small squeaks, "Grendel, Grendel… Grendel's coming…"

1 turned to the girl and asked, "Grendel? Who's Grendel?"

But a low roar, a roar that sounded like someone whimpering in pain, snapped all of them out of their dazes of looking at each other. Gold looked around in surprise, slowly gazing at the area around them with caution in his widened eyes. 9, now worried, looked around too as 2 stepped in front of him, the shiny object still clutched in Copper's hand.

"Shhh…." Copper said softly, "We have to go… we have to go now!"

"Wait, Copper," 9 asked, walking up to her, coaching her like a big brother would, "What's going on? Who or what is Grendel?"

Before Copper could answer that question, a barrage of bullets shot out from the ceiling, raining down on everything. The six stitchpunks immediately began to run around, dodging all the shots as best they could. The bullets destroyed the communication and radio machines; sparks and pieces began to shower all over the place. Even the papers and the records began to get thrown strewn all over the room. The chunks of everything that get shot started to snow all over the place, as the bullets continued to keep showering down the room.

The stitchpunks were doing their best to dodge, but in the process they got separated by this unforeseen development. 1 was doing his best to dodge it, but due to his old age, he was barely able to get it with just his cane. However, the one to help him out was Gold as he rushed to his side, and grabbed him as they both barely dodged five bullets that struck to where they once were.

"Wait! Where are we going?" 1 cried out.

"Anywhere but here," Gold responded.

However, they didn't have to go far as they both didn't know that they ran off the desk, and crashed into a full trashcan. 5 was yelling in fear of the bullets, until he slammed face first into a large phonebook nearby. He crashed onto his butt, just as the book started to fall down on him, as he yelled, and it crashed right down on him. Copper, 2, and 9 were running from the barrage, until 9 had accidentally fell down on the ground.

That was when the barrage stopped, and everything became quiet. Copper and 2, who were the only ones to remain on the desk, aside from a buried 5, peeked over the side to see if 9 was alright. "9!" 2 called out to the youngest of them as he began to get back on his feet groggily, "9, are you alright?"

9 groaned a bit, steadying himself on his light bulb staff. He turned around, waving to the two, "Yeah, I'm alright."

However, their little heart-warming reassurance of each other was short lived. Those that were still awake or not knocked out, they began to hear the whimpered growl of whatever it was that started before the chance of bullets. Even 2 and Copper got up as they looked around defensively, with 2's cane being the only thing used to defend themselves with.

9 stood defensively with his staff, obviously not willing to go so easily, or to give himself or others up without a fight, as he took his stance. However, his calm breath and his slow darting eyes at to where the sounds were coming from. That deep whimpered growling was all around them, seeming to have no source at all. 9 tightened his grip on the light bulb staff, showing that he was used to fighting now, way better than he did before. Now, he was ready for anything…

… until now.

The roof caved in on top of them, and their eyes went wide. 9 easily dodged the debris, however, he had skidded face first onto the ground, with his staff landing ten feet away from them. He got back up on to his feet, and was about to go back for his staff, but a low and shallow creaking and squeak halted him, as his eyes went wide. He sharply turned to look over his shoulder, and was blind sided by a kick in the stomach by what appeared to be a shovel, and a loud howl of pain.

He hit the ground several feet from where he had been kicked across the room by what he saw was a shovel, turned into a hind foot with the broken end still attached. Gold, who had climbed up to the edge of the trashcan, gasped loudly as he saw 9 skidding next to the trash can. 2 and Copper ran to the edge of the table, only to dodge down on the desk to get out of the sight of the creature that had invaded the room.

9 let out a groan, looking ahead of him to his staff, which had landed a few inches from his hand. He stretched out to grab it quickly, but suddenly, a million pounds of weight and metal had suddenly landed right in front of him before he could make a move. His view looked back in surprise as he beheld a great beast before him.

Standing right before him, was a monster created from the skeleton of a twelve year-old child. The skull still had some hair on the right side of the skull, but built into the left eye was a metallic and red glowing eye. What held the jaw together were black leather bands bolted right in, and some of the missing teeth, sharp screws. Attached into it was a vacuum tube to create an esophagus, attached to a cage bolted into its back. On its chest and shoulders was the chest and shoulder pads of a football uniform, and bolted to it and the skull, were black leather bands as well as two machine muscles to allow the neck movement at all. Attached to the elbows were mechanical muscles as well, but on the left arm, it was a bit enlarged thanks to a piece of armor plating and a machine gun bolted into it, with a bullet belt being fed into it from a casing on the pelvis in behind. Both its hands were replaced with steel fingers with blades made of scissors, knives, or any other pointy object. In its stomach region, the tube went down and back into the steeled cage bolted into it. Its legs were all reinforced with mechanical muscles, the left leg's knee joint was bolted with steel plating and held together with leather bands, while the lower part of the right leg had steel bolted to it. For the feet, the left one had been replaced with a shovel with the broken end of the stick still on it, as did the right foot, which was a pitchfork, giving it a sort of hind leg feel to it.

2 was nearly in fear of this monstrosity, as he whispered, "What is that?"

"Grendel," was all that Copper whispered as she shrunk back in fear, clutching the talisman in her small hands.

The beast, called Grendel, looked down at 9 and roared out in what appeared to be a mixture of anger and pain. Before 9 could get to his weapon, Grendel snatched him up in its right hand, holding him up to its face. 9 didn't waste time as he drew out his dagger, and flung it right at its eye. The beast cried out in pain, almost feeling that barely-damageable attack. It turned to 9 as he howled out in anger, until he threw 9 across the room. 9 yelled out until he crashed into the wall, as he slumped to the ground, groaning in pain.

Grendel walked toward him and scooped up the unconscious leader, then swallowed the little stitchpunk. A lump went down the tube, until finally, 9 was pushed into the cage on Grendel's back. It was before anything else, he heard footsteps from behind it, and sharply turned… to see Copper about to where 5 was hidden in. But Grendel saw this, and threw its left arm out, firing out a stream of bullets that missed the cat girl stitchpunk. During the barrage, Copper slipped and fell face first on the table, letting the talisman slip from her fingers as it rolled a foot away from her. She was about to grab it, until Grendel came up and slammed its hand on her hard.

She cried out, being knocked out by the blow as her small little body slumped sprawled on the table's surface.

Though the monster, Grendel, swooped in on it's prey with much vicious satisfaction in its red eye, it stalled as that very eye spotted the talisman. It looked at it, taking it daintily with two long sharp fingers to hold it up and look at it.

By now, Gold leaned practically out of his hiding place to watch this horror unfold, and spotted the glare in the monster's eyes as it turned, and quickly hid back in his hiding place, fearing the beast had seen him. It hadn't seen him, but it certainly spotted some movement from the receptacle. Growling deep in it's artificial throat and grabbing the unconscious Copper, Grendel clambered over the piles of bullets and junk debris to investigate, it's body hunching over as it looked over the can with it's lit eye.

However, a sudden clunk on the skull took his attention back and made him look back to see that he had missed one on the desk.

"H-Here, Grendel…." 2 said, and tried to pick up one of the empty bullet shells nearby, despite the fact his legs now rejected to move. He moved the stone closer. "I'm the only one left… take me…"

His voice trailed off as the monstrous apparition approached him, seeming to accept his challenge as it snarled deeply and focused it's bright light only on him. 2 lifted up the empty bullet shell with one hand, though his body shook desperately as he looked at the beast through his glass. He couldn't move, only crane his neck upward and stare with large eyes as his body trembled uselessly and his mouth fell agape.

The beast swooped down, clutching 2 in the hand that held Copper, and ripping his limp body forcefully off the table. 2 struggled as best he could, but to no avail, as he and Copper were swallowed as well, and ended up in the cage along with the still knocked out 9.

Grendel looked around and saw no movement whatsoever in the room. The beast then backed away and looked downward. The talisman that it had grabbed was then placed onto a set of prongs on it's chest, where it sat precariously. It then stompled near the trashcan to where Gold and 1 had been knocked in. and in just a spur of angered rage, Grendel kicked the trashcan hard into the wall, sending it rolling aside. Grendel then finally roared aloud as it raced down out of the room, and possibly outside, carrying with it its three new prisoners.

An Hour Later

Climbing up the stairwell, a huge stitchpunk like fellow, and a smaller one, both hidden in shadows had just come into the room, looking around. They inspected the area, until the smaller one spotted something from the trashcan. He dug through it for a while, until he had found them: Gold and 1, completely unconscious and still out of it by the looks of things. Even the bigger one, who had climbed up the desk in search of someone, found 5 unconscious as well, still flattened by the book he was under. Whoever, the two were, the fate of the three that didn't get caught, were now in their hands.

* * *

**Next Chapter: Meet the Survivors; The War of the Machines**

* * *

**Alrighty, folks, I promised you guys a voice actor cast, and here it is down below.**

**Gold: Jake Gyllenhaal**

**Copper: Melissa Fahn**

**Lead: Bill Fagerbakke**

**Tin: Will Ferrell**

**Iron: Hugo Weaving**

**Platinum: Mila Kunis**

**Mercury: Susan Sarandon**

**Silver: Jackie Chan**


	5. Meet the Survivors pt1

**9 Redemption and Salvation**

* * *

**Chapter 5: Meet the Survivors; War of the Machines**

* * *

**Ruins of the Notre Dame**

What was once the proud and pristine monument of religion that was the famous Notre Dame, was now in ruins. Bullet holes riddled the sides of the monument, with the shells or bodies on the side, covered in metal and debris. A fighter plane had crashed into the top roof in the back, with its tail sticking out into the sky. And last but not least, the right tower in the front was halfway gone, leaving only the left brother to stand proudly. The once famous cathedral was now one of the ruins of the city, left open and standing out like a rotting and festering wound.

At least that was what 7 saw when she and 4 traversed on through. When they had come two from the crash, 7 had found 4 all by herself, with no sigh of 6 or her brother. 8 was nowhere to be found as well; they must have wandered on to find the others, not even noticing each other's whereabouts. The female warrior stitchpunk held her scalpel staff in her right hand, having it at the ready. 4, on the other hand, looked around, frightened of this unknown place, or what was out there.

As they continued on foot, approaching the tall cathedral, 7 turned to see the young stitchpunk, looking around in fear and worry for her brother. She figured that this might have been the first time the twins had ever been separated. The warrior stitchpunk walked over to her, and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, getting 4's attention.

"We'll find them, 4," 7 assured 4 with a gentle motherly voice.

4 looked up at her, with a sad plea in her eyes as they flickered, silently asking what if they couldn't.

"No!" 7 said firmly, as she stabbed her weapon into the ground. She then gently cupped the female twin's cheeks as she got her to look at her eye to eye, "Don't ever give up hope, 4. The others are out there; and I know they haven't given up on finding us." She then let go of her face, and cupped her chin to pick her up, "So, come on. Don't quit on them now."

4 looked to the elder stitchpunk, a little more hopeful now, as the young stitchpunk smiled and nodded.

7 padded the young stitchpunk on the shoulders, and sighed and smile, "Right. Let's keep going until we find someone."

With 4 back in cheerful and curious nature arising again, the two girls set foot once again. But they stopped, as soon as they spotted movement, only about twenty-five feet from them. There, limping across the ground, stood a stitchpunk, covered in a cloak… or at least it looked like a stitchpunk. But because of the cloak, they couldn't really tell. 4, elated to see another of their own, was about to race over. But 7 stopped her in time, giving her a look of caution, and turned her attention to the unknown stitchpunk trailing itself, not even noticing the two.

"Hello?" 7 called out, trying to get the stitch punk's attention. The figure stopped in its tracks, but didn't move from then out. 7's grip on her scalpel staff tightened up, preparing for the worst.

And the worst did happen.

The little stitchpunk in the cloak was pulled back swiftly into the ground. 7 and 4 jumped back from the surprise, as 7 stood in a battle stance, with both hands on the staff at the ready. 4 hid right behind 7, frightened at what had just happened. Then suddenly, a giant beast arose from the dirt, roaring aloud with a guttural roar, almost sounding like a walrus.

And indeed, it was a walrus, voice and body wise. The skeletal remains of a walrus were used in this beast's creation. Though there were major modifications done to it. On the upper part of the back, a V-8 flathead engine was installed into it, enabling it to run, with the spoke pipes, about four, sticking down the lower part, spewing out smoke. The rest of its back was covered in tire pieces; the tires were cut in half to make some kind of padding for the back. It arms were bone and metal, welded and screwed on together, with firefighter jacket cloth to give it covering, and had massive steel claws that flexed, clawing at the ground. The tail was comprised of metallic tendril pieces, with springs and wires giving it movement. And on the tip of the tail, the same little cloaked stitchpunk was there… stitched to the tip of it. And what made matters worse, was that it had a mini gun on the left shoulder blade, and a grenade launcher on the right. Both its eye sockets had two red eyes, its jaw was reinforced with artificial muscles, and its tusks were steel forged, as the other teeth were bone. It proved that this creature was heavily armored, and that it was packing bullets and explosives.

The Walrus Beast fired the mini gun right at them, hoping to kill the two stitchpunks. The bullets waved over the debris of rocks, downed military tanks, and cars. The bullets sliced through the rocks and cars, turning them to swiss cheese. The bullets that struck the ground created little sand explosions that kicked up dust and sand. And they were all heading right for the two.

Before 7 could grab 4 and dodge for cover, someone had already beaten her to it. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a figure ran up to them real fast, and tackled them over to the ground. They rolled over until they were protected by a downed tank. The bullets ricocheted off the metal, giving the three stitchpunks perfect cover.

7 got back up, being helped up by 4, as she got her bearings. "Ugh," she moaned as her eyesight started to clear up from getting tackled to the ground like that. "9?" she asked, thinking it could have been, but then she stopped as she saw it was something new.

It was a stitchpunk alright, much like she and 4 were, but it was a male, and he was different from their designs. It was obviously male due to his slim build and otherwise model shape; his top was thin but strong, while his bottom half looked like they were puffy pants of sorts. His design was similar to 9's in that his skin was made of perfect but bleached burlap fabric, and a black fabric covered small zipper went from his pelvis to his neck. His hands were a perfect combination of carved wood for the knuckle base and a metal for the fingers. But this one was different… much different. His stitching was bright silver on his body and for his eyebrows, and the fabric stopped on his elbows and knees. His forearms and calves, toes and fingers were made entirely of silver. And on his back, was written in thin black ink: Ag 47, with Ag on top and the numbers under them. Around his waist was a black belt that held to his right side, a black silk fabric that went down atop his ankle, with two screws and bolts on the front and back. Draped over his right side, was a supply belt pouch that went down to his knee, and a pouch latched to the belt on his waist. He had another black pouch strapped onto his left leg. Across his chest, from right shoulder to left ribcage, he had a black leather belt, with another going to his left shoulder, which was guarded by a thimble that had been cut in half; it went from his shoulder to the upper portion of his elbow. The other half, which had been shorted down a bit, was on his right shoulder. On both his wrists were black bands held by a white clip on button. Around his neck was a black scarf that covered his mouth, and on his back, the petrified shell of a baby sea turtle, and behind that were the two halves of a pair of small sewing scissors, modified as swords. But on the turtle's shell, was carved Ag 47, with Ag on top and the number under.

But he didn't talk at first, as he drew out one of his blades, and turned around, to rush towards a particular wire. He sliced at it, cutting it in half cleanly. The wire shot upward, as a few mechanisms clicked here and there. Then, as the Walrus Angler made its way towards them, it passed over a few cable hooks. Finally, the hooks then shot up, digging their way into the beast, pulling it upward into the air; the beast roared and wiggled, trying to break itself free from this position.

As the beast dangled and struggled to free itself, the figure turned around at the two. At first, it looked like he would attack, but he didn't, as he pulled down his scarf to reveal his mouth. "Follow me, if you want to live," was all that he said, as he ran towards the Notre Dame.

The two, unsure of this, raced on after him, heading inside the cathedral.

The Beast struggled to free itself, until finally, it shot at its own tail, severing it, and falling to the ground. Now free, it crawled on over to where the three abominations went.

* * *

**Inside the Cathedral**

7, 4, and the one who was supposedly called Silver, raced up the stairs. Or rather, hop up on the stairway as fast as they could. Outside, the beast shot at the boulder covered doors with the grenade launcher. Explosions could be heard at the door, as the three stitchpunks knew that the Walrus Angler was trying to get in there. It took them a while to get to it, but they stopped, just as Silver reached a window, with a pillar web of lines.

Silver grabbed onto a nail embedded into the wall, and leaned outside. There, the Walrus Angler continued to shoot grenades at the door, attempting to blow the doors down. Silver looked above it, and saw a payload of I-beams and other heavy materials. Silver jumped towards one of the ropes, and caught it gracefully, and then another, until he reached one of the ropes tagged red. When he reached the rope closest to it, he drew out one of the scissor blades… and sliced the rope.

The payload then started to fall down, at blinding speed. The Walrus Angler looked upward, and saw the load coming right down on him, and…

CRASH!

The load plummeted upon the unsuspecting beast, crushing it by the seeing eye. Silver swung himself back to the ledge, where 7 and 4 were waiting for him. When he landed, he too looked down to see if that finished the job. The pile rumbled a bit, until the Walrus Angler shot out, thrashing and roaring about, with its head barely holding onto the cables. The mini gun went off, shooting bullets left and right, until by one swing, its head was in direct line of fire, shooting the head clean off the shoulders. There, the robot finally died down, falling to the ground, dead as a doornail.

After that was done, 7 and 4 looked to their newest face. 7 was the first to greet him, as she got up and walked towards him, with her hand extended for a handshake, "Thank you. I don't know if we would…"

"Then you should have been more careful," Silver shot out, as he drew his sword right at 7's throat. "Who are you? Why are you here? And where you sent by the Machines?" Silver interrogated, not flinching for one second.

Sensing the full tension from him, 7 stopped in her tracks, but never flinched, as the blade nearly touched her slender throat. 4 backed away, fearing the new one's ferocity; her eyes flickering in fear, more than she did shake. It felt like a full minute between the two; 7 clutching on to her scalpel staff, and Silver holding his scissor swords.

Until finally, the silver stitchpunk put his weapons away and sighed, "Very well." he then clenched his fist, and pounded it into his open palm, and bowed his head, "Forgive my rudeness. It has been a while since I have been around company."

A little stunned by the change of attitude so fast, 7 sheathed her weapon away and accepted the apology, "I'd say the fault is both ours." when the two were done, 4 walked up alongside 7, still wary of the new stitchpunk, as 7 placed a hand on her shoulder and looked to him, "So, tell us… are there any others like you?"

* * *

**Elsewhere**

As he slept, Gold saw the scene repeat itself a million times. 2, 9, and Copper would be snatched up and carried away, calling back helplessly to the others, as well as himself. Sometimes, the images would change and the event would be complete poles apart. Gold muttered and rolled about in his sleep, his eyes fluttering open in the midst of his recorded thoughts.

_Looks like he's having nightmares. Go get that new guy; the one called 5. _

_B-But…_

_Don't make excuses, just get him right now._

_Ah… Alright, Tina._

Those new voices, one of that of a girl with attitude and a timid fellow, filled his non-existent ears as he began to stir more awake. He breathed hard, blinking back the blurry images as his energy found him again. Over him were quite dangerous objects that danced quietly to themselves, and his body rested on some sort of a flat surface. His eyes blinked and his mind wondered how he had gotten here.

But then, his question was answered as someone came over, hovering over his face.

More frightened by this supposed attack, Gold grabbed the figure's wrists, pulling them away from him. Unfortunately, his assailant fought back, and ended up throwing each other off to the ground.

"H-Hey! Get off me," that same female voice called out again.

As Gold's eyes finally regained their sight, it was evident on who it was that he had tackled. It was a stitchpunk, much like himself, but this one was a female. This was due to the fact that her body was designed into a slim and slender figure, more befitting of that of a female teenager of nineteen; the cheerleader type. The fabric that was made for her skin was a dazzling pale sky blue spandex. But like him, she shared a similar design as his own; the fabric ended at her elbows, but on her legs, they ended at the middle of her thighs. The metal made into her forearms, lower legs, fingers and toes, were made of what appeared to be pure platinum, a silverfish light blue metal. Sewn into her head, was silver blue hair; a doll's hair so to speak, and in the front, bangs made of platinum shavings were shown. A large bang was swept over on the left side of her head, almost covering her left eye. The doll's hair reached down to her ankles, but tied together by a small nut acting as a scrunchie of sorts. She had on her faded blue straps of cloth wrapped tightly around her chest, down to her belly button. A long black scarf was draped over her shoulders and going down to her midback. Dangling on the right side of her waist, was a small leather strap turned into a belt, that held a few lassos of yarn on to them, with a small bolt or nut sewn on to the end of them. She had a slightly dirty silk skirt tied on around her waist, barely holding on to her hips, that went down to her ankles and spilt up to the hips. On her left thigh, was written Pt 78, with the letters on top and the numbers on the bottom.

"Hey," the girl finally shot out, with a look of distaste in her voice, "You can get off now."

"H-hey!" a new voice said, and gentle hands grasped his shoulder and touched his back. "It's alright… no one here's going to hurt you."

Gold looked up, his mind snapping back as he got off the female. It was 5! He was alive and hadn't been caught by the beast, Grendel.

But there was someone else with him.

Next to 5, was a new male stitchpunk. This stitchpunk's body was built like 3's body, meaning he would have to be 2 inches taller than Copper. His fabric was composed of pale brown burlap, and like the other new stitchpunks, his fabric ended at the elbows and knees. However, the fabric on his head was pulled back a bit, giving him sort of a hoodie head. The metal on his forearms, lower legs, fingers and toes, were composed of what appeared to be a clear color gray, Tin to be exact. He was wearing a brown vest, and a faded black leather strap made into a belt, with a sash with many pockets sewn into them, with a sewing kit strapped behind his back. But there was something else about him, as he seemed a bit similar to 5. His lower right leg was replaced with a Phillips head screwdriver point, acting as a peg leg. But his left forearm and had was now gone, but replacing it, was a small black and silver Swiss army knife, with the tweezers attachment being used as a pincer hand. And written on the right side of his forehead, was Sn 13, with Sn on top and the number on the bottom.

The smaller one, probably named Tin, walked over to Gold, and helped him back to the table, which was made from a roller skate. There, he sat back down, feeling a little light headed, as Tin calmly stated to him in the best attempt to comfort him, "You're safe now. You're among friends."

Gold rubbed his sore head, clanking a bit on his eyes, as he close one eye and looked to the trio, "Where are we?"

"You're in what's probably a military compound," Platinum stated, as she got up and strode over to the side. She sighed as she leaned against the wall, "No one else knows about this place… say for those who live here."

Finally opening his eyes, Gold asked, "How'd we get here?"

"Oh, you should be thankgin this fellah," 5 answered as he patted Tin on his shoulder, the latter fellow acting a bit shy around everyone. "He and this other guy, Lead; they were looking around to find out where Copper was, and they found you, me, and 1." he hten pointed them individually, as Gold paid close attention, "The shaky one is called Tin, their repairman, and the one with attitude is Platinum, or Tina. She's uh…" he thought about it for a moment, until he finally asked, "What exactly do you do?"

Platinum shot him a look, as she warned, "None of your business."

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**Next Chapter: Meet the Survivors; War Against the Machines pt. 2**


	6. Meet the Survivors pt2

**9 Redemption and Salvation**

* * *

**Chapter 6: Meet the Survivors; War Against the Machines pt.2**

* * *

**Elsewhere**

As he slept, Gold saw the scene repeat itself a million times. 2, 9, and Copper would be snatched up and carried away by the monster, Grendel. They were locked in the cage welded to the Construct's back, calling back helplessly to the others, as well as himself. Sometimes, the images would change and the event would be complete poles apart. Gold muttered and rolled about in his sleep, his eyes fluttering open in the midst of his recorded thoughts.

_Looks like he's having nightmares. Go get that new guy; the one called 5. _

_B-But…_

_Don't make excuses, just get him right now._

_Ah… Alright, Tina._

Those new voices, one of that of a girl with attitude and a timid fellow, filled his non-existent ears as he began to stir more awake. He breathed hard, blinking back the blurry images as his energy found him again. Over him were quite dangerous objects that danced quietly to themselves, and his body rested on some sort of a flat surface. His eyes blinked and his mind wondered how he had gotten here.

But then, his question was answered as someone came over, hovering over his face.

More frightened by this supposed attack, Gold grabbed the figure's wrists, pulling them away from him. Unfortunately, his assailant fought back, and ended up throwing each other off to the ground.

"H-Hey! Get off me," that same female voice called out again.

As Gold's eyes finally regained their sight, it was evident on who it was that he had tackled. It was a stitchpunk, much like himself, but this one was a female. This was due to the fact that her body was designed into a slim and slender figure, an hourglass model figure, more befitting of that of a female teenager of nineteen; the cheerleader type. The fabric that was made for her skin was a dazzling pale sky blue spandex. But like him, she shared a similar design as his own; the fabric ended at her elbows, but on her legs, they ended at the middle of her thighs. The metal made into her forearms, lower legs, fingers and toes, were made of what appeared to be pure platinum, a silverish light blue metal. Sewn into her head, was silver blue hair; a Barbie doll's hair so to speak, and in the front, bangs made of platinum shavings were shown. A large bang was swept over on the left side of her head, almost covering her left eye. The doll's hair reached down to her ankles, but tied together by a small nut acting as a scrunchie of sorts at the very end of her hair. She had on her faded blue straps of cloth wrapped tightly around her chest, down to her belly button. But underneath the cloth, what held her together were two clip buttons; one on her left breast, and one for her belly button. A long black scarf was draped over her shoulders and going down to her midback. Dangling on the right side of her waist, was a small leather strap turned into a belt, that held a few lassos of yarn on to them, with a small bolt or nut sewn on to the end of them. She had a slightly dirty silk skirt tied on around her waist, barely holding on to her hips, that went down to her ankles and spilt up to the hips. She also had on tuffs of spandex material draped over her ankels, much like Copper had on her ankles. On her left thigh, was written Pt 78, with the letters on top and the numbers on the bottom.

Amazingly, to Gold, this girl was perhaps the most beautiful creature that he had ever laid his eyes upon.

"Hey," the girl finally shot out, with a look of distaste in her voice, "You can get off now."

"H-hey!" a new voice said, and gentle hands grasped his shoulder and touched his back. "It's alright… no one here's going to hurt you."

Gold looked up, his mind snapping back as he got off the female. It was 5! He was alive and hadn't been caught by the beast, Grendel.

But there was someone else with him.

Next to 5, was a new male stitchpunk. This stitchpunk's body was built like 3's body, meaning he would have to be 2 inches taller than Copper. His fabric was composed of pale brown burlap, and like the other new stitchpunks, his fabric ended at the elbows and knees, and a sewn crisscross pattern going down from his neck collar to his belly button. However, the fabric on his head was pulled back a bit, giving him sort of a hoodie head. The metal on his forearms, lower legs, fingers and toes, were composed of what appeared to be a clear color gray, Tin to be exact. He was wearing a brown vest, and a faded black leather strap made into a belt, and a sash with many pockets sewn into them, and a sewing kit strapped behind his back. But there was something else about him, as he seemed a bit similar to 5. His lower right leg was replaced with a Flathead screwdriver point, acting as a peg leg. But his left forearm and hand were both now gone, but replacing them was a small black and silver Swiss army knife, with the tweezers attachment being used as a pincer hand. And written on the right side of his forehead, was Sn 50, with Sn on top and the number on the bottom.

The smaller one, probably named Tin, walked over to Gold, and helped him back to the table, which was made from a roller skate. There, he sat back down, feeling a little light headed, as Tin calmly stated to him in the best attempt to comfort him, "You're safe now. You're among friends."

Gold rubbed his sore head, clanking a bit on his eyes, as he close one eye and looked to the trio, "Where are we?"

"You're in what's probably a military compound," Platinum stated, as she got up and strode over to the side. She sighed as she leaned against the wall, "Either that, or a motel that was refitted into a military compound by any of the last surviving humans now dead. No one else knows about this place… say for those who live here." Then she stuck out her thumb, pointing to herself, "Namely me…" and pointed to Tin, "Tin, and the others that live here."

Finally opening his eyes, Gold asked, "How'd we get here?"

"Oh, you should be thanking this fellah," 5 answered as he patted Tin on his shoulder, the latter fellow acting a bit shy around everyone. "He and this other guy, Lead; they were looking around to find out where Copper was, and they found you, me, and 1." he then pointed them individually, as Gold paid close attention, "The shaky one is called Tin, their repairman, and the one with attitude is Platinum, or Tina. She's uh…" he thought about it for a moment, until he finally asked, "What exactly do you do?"

Platinum shot him a look, as she warned, "None of your business."

"What's none of his business, Platinum?"

The four young stitchpunks turned to the corner of the room, directed by the authoritive voice speaking out.

There, standing next to 1, was a male stitchpunk, of Spartan build. He seemed to be a stitchpunk male designed to be a man of about in his forties or was at fifty. His frame was built amazing, making him a soldier and a warrior, and about three centimeters taller than the regular stitchpunks. His face seemed chiseled much like 1's face, with the same type of shutter eyes. Much like the others, he too had a specific element made for his alloy. His calves, forearms, hands, fingers, toes, and surprisingly his lower jaw and eyes, they were made out of a dark blue iron alloy, and his stitching was blue, from the vertical line down his chest and stomach, down the middle of both his thighs. His knees were made from iron screws, showing the Phillips head points, and on his toes, one screw was on top, and two on the sides. His forearms were enlarged and cylinder like pipes, and his hands were guarded, almost merging with the forearms. His fingers weren't pointed like the others, in fact they were rectangular and strong looking when balled up into a fist. He had a dirty blue cloth wrapped around his waist that ended halfway above his knees, with two iron disks at his side acting as hip guards. On his shoulders, were two half gears sticking upward and strapped to his shoulders like shoulder guards. Across his chest were two bands of leather, crossing into an X, and held together by a blue bolt, and he also had two shin guards made out of discarded sheets of metal. And on his head, was the empty end of a bullet, that had been fashioned into a roman helmet of sorts, without the frilly feather head, but had the nose guard. But on his right eye, it appeared something slashed there, as the metal had been dented and the lens scratched as well, with red stitching pulling together the stitched cut. And to add finally to him, on his right arm was written in black ink, Fe 26, with the letters on top and the numbers on bottom.

The newest stitchpunk figure, now known as Iron, walked on in as 1 slunked into the room, glaring at 5 with pinched together pupils, as Tin hastily rounded to Iron.

"Iron!" Tin nervously wrung his hands together, trying to explain the situation. "I, uh… I was actually just c-coming to tell you, but…" but he stopped, as a gentle hand patted him on the shoulder from the Iron Warrior, and gently pushed him aside. However, he walked straight to Gold, who leaned back farther, until Iron firmly grabbed him by the shoulders, examining him as if to study the lad. And then, he pulled him down so he hunched over, getting a good look at the lad's back.

The new being looked over the mark across his back, the scientific symbol of Gold. But what caught his attention was the socket in the back of the new one's head.

"So where did you and Lead find these three?" Iron asked aloud, not certain who he was asking the question to.

"Uh… We f-found them!" Tin said boldly as he neared the older, taller, and stronger figure. However, he glanced to ground and crept backwards, his mind knowing exactly what it had to get out, "In, uh… In the Radio Station…"

This caught Iron's attention, but he kept silent at this reaction. Instead of being angered, like 5 remembered when 1 reacted to where he found 9 at, he seemed a bit depressed by that answer.

He let go of Gold and slowly rounded on Tin, and asked, "Are you certain that's where you found them?"

Understanding the tone in his voice, Tin knew what he was asking, and sadly nodded, "Yes, sir. It is."

"Are you freakin' insane?" Platinum finally shouted out, storming towards Tin. She towered over the smaller one, who simply shrunk back in fright. She stopped in front of Tin as he backed up in a panic.

"What the hell were you doing out there?" she nearly freaked out, "You'll lead Grendel or any other of those Constructs straight back to us!" Tin stumbled and fell into a table, knocking several things over. Platinum didn't stop as Tin tried to scramble back up to pick up the fallen items. Instead, she whipped out the ropes, tying them around Tin's neck and pushed him into a backwards bend on the table. 1 and 5 nearly jumped back from the girl's speed, but Iron stood where he was, just watching this, not even showing that he liked this sort of thing. Platinum continued to berate him, seeing as Tin was at a loss for words, stuttering for an excuse. "How many _times _has Iron told us…!"

"Grendel! That's what took Copper! He also took 2 and 9," Gold offered, trying to break the fight up. The toughened warrior glanced back to him as Tin and 5 looked at him with frightened eyes. "If we all hurry, we can…"

"No," Platinum finally snapped out, pulling away from Tin and walked towards Gold with slanted eyes, "If Grendel has your friends, as well as Copper, then they're all pretty much dead like everything else out there."

"But they were still alive!" 5 defended for him.

"No!" she snapped, pounding her slender finger into Gold's shoulder, causing him to flinched back. "We have rules here! And we're all gonna follow them if we're gonna live!"

"And what exactly are we living from?" 1 finally asked, stepping up between the two younger stitchpunks. He then glanced at Platinum, and then Iron as he asked, "What exactly has happened in this part of the world? The rest of the world, I might add."

"What's going on in here?" another new voice spoke out.

And then gaining all their attentions, the sound of slow and heavy footsteps made them all look to the door. A bike stoke, used as a club, parted the doorway, and a large lumbering being stood there. He was gigantic and intimidating… and the weapon he held simply added to the influence. 5 slowly walked back to 1, his eyes focusing on the largest as the older one looked rather impressed by the figure. Tin, Platinum, and Iron seemed comforted by the new arrival, while Gold couldn't help but gawk at the giant before them. It was another stitchpunk, a big and bulky male, built similar to 8, although it was more stronger looking. Like the new stitchpunks, he shared the same designs on them, and his skin was made from spandex light brown, and held together by buckle straps. The metal that made up his forearms, hands, fingers, calves, feet, and lenses were made of a light gray-brown metallic material. On his head was a small Mohawk made of the same metal bolted into his head by three bolts, and he had a jaw made of the same metal, with three teeth sticking out. His stitching was brown as well, and his kneecaps were armored from gray brown metal. His forearms were enlarged and cylinder like pipes, but his hands were ball joints, with only three thick fingers acting like pincer claws, and his toes were split in two, adding for them to move like separate toes on each foot. Strapped around his waist was a gray brown sash that went down to his knees, held around his waist by a belt with a pouch in the front, and strapped on it three belts; two on both side and one halfway on the right side. Wrapped around his left bicep appeared to be a piece of the same metal, and on his right bicep the same material but with a penny acting as an arm guard. Around his left calf were leather brown belts holding it together, and on his shoulders were thick slabs of the light brown metal with one screw on the top, acting as shoulder guards, and a leather belt going across his chest from right to left. And etched into his left forearm, was the sign, Pb 82 going across the arm together.

"Thank you for joining us, Lead," Iron said over his shoulder, a tone of military authority in his voice, "We have a few guests; the ones that you brought over. Including the last one of us."

Lead looked as he saw Gold, awaken now, and smiled as he waved at him, "Oh, hey. You must be Gold. I'm Lead." He then looked over to 5 and 1, as he smirked, "Oh, hi. Glad to see you guys are up and about. Truth be told I didn't expect to see others like us… or rather not like us, so…"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Platinum grumbled aloud, interrupting them as she walked past Lead and outside. "If we're done with formalities, let's get to the Main Room." She then looked to the three new stitchpunks, including Gold most of all, and smiled with satisfaction, "There, we'll give you some clarity on the world's fallout."

Iron followed suit after her calmly, walking easily past Lead to the doorway. Lead looked to the others, and merely made a nod toward the direction the two had gone, his large eyes leaving them for a moment.

5 slowly approached Lead and then hastily walked around him; his eyes to the ground in his submission. 1 simply walked calmly, a scowled look on his face just showed as he glared back at Lead, who flinched a bit, but walked onward. The last ones in the room were Tin and Gold, as Tin led the other and newest of the group with him. Gold, however, didn't look away from him as he craned his neck to look him over. Questions of why he was so big, and yet so nice to everyone, about anything and everything about him flashed past as he did. Lead raised a confused eyebrow at him as he walked past, and Gold met his gaze, almost questioning each other.

But Lead made the stitchpunk feel easy as he dropped the eyebrow and calmly smiled, "Go on."

"Uh, thanks," Gold said, slightly surprised at the larger stitchpunk's polite demeanor.

"Come on, we'll lose the others, if we don't catch up," Tin stated as he grabbed him by his normal hand. The two immediately picked up their steps, as Lead followed behind them.

But as his gaze went away and his body walked out the cloth door way, Gold's curious eyes gazed upward, his mouth going slightly agape at the new place his was. The area looked like they were in a flooded subway station underground. And now, they were currently walking on a pipeline that lead to the observatory deck, hovering above the flooded subway station. Cars everywhere were either flooded, crashed into the wall to where the water had come from, or sticking upward, as it appeared that the water had shoved the cars together. The stairways that led to the surface, were only halfway flooded, allowing a quick passage to the surface. This must have been what Platinum had meant when she said underground.

Gold's eyes looked straight up, his mouth curving upward as questions echoed inside his head. Why was it so broken? Who or what had done all this and why? Why did the others stay here? As he asked himself these questions that went unanswered, he saw a great mass over him. Immediately, the word 'Fighter Plane' buzzed right in his head, leaving large gashes in the building; the plane was halfway destroyed. There a rusted mass moved slowly at three points, which circled together like an endless dance.

"Gold…" Tin whispered, placing his pincer hand on his shoulder. Gold looked to him, his eyes shuttering, as Tin gave him a hopeful look and whispered to him. "Grendel… It didn't kill her?"

Before Gold could answer, Lead leaned down to their eyelevel, and asked, "Yeah, is she alright?"

"I can't really say," Gold truthfully answered, "I was unconscious when it took them." the two seemed frown a bit at this, but Gold gave them a sad yet, reassuring smile, "But if 5 says they're alive, then there's hope yet."

The two new stitchpunks smiled at him, silently kindling a friendship with the trio.

The three stopped as they saw Platinum, Iron, and 1 stop at what appeared to be a large oil lamp, connected by two cables from top and bottom, dangling at the side of the pipe they stopped at. Where they stood, it appeared to be a crude platform for the lamp. Platinum opened the doorway and stepped into the lamp, with the others following after her. 5 followed them inside it and Gold and Tin did as well, but Tin nearly lost his step as Lead followed after them, causing him to push into him, causing him to stumble inside and land smack into Gold, and causing him to smack into Platinum.

Gold steadied himself as he readied himself, and looked to the female stitchpunk. He shyly half-smiled at her as he apologized sheepishly, "S-Sorry about that." but all that earned from her was a huff in disgust.

"Oh, sorry guys," Lead apologized to the two as he hung outside, "Didn't mean to smack into ya like that."

Lead then, gently pushed the oil lamp off the platform, as it started to slowly pull away. Lead jumped on there, shaking the makeshift elevator due to his weight, and ran in there as he locked the door, which sealed it airtight. The lamp elevator then suddenly, but slowly, lowered down into the water below.

As Gold looked out there, he couldn't help but be amazed by this as the lamp sunk deep within the water. Even deep underwater, the whole world, even though ruined, was quite amazing. However, 5 and Tin glanced away nervously as Gold looked to 1, who leaned on his staff deep in thought. Lead seemed to just enjoy the ride as he leaned back. Iron, as always, was as stiff and limited to emotional response, as his arms were crossed as he looked outside the glass elevator. But when he turned towards Platinum, she was startled by his eyes at her, and looked the other way, huffing as always. He glanced away to avoid her huff and gaze, and instead let his eyes wander downward to wherever the elevator was taking them to. He saw that it was heading down towards one of the carts, with a strange box that opened up on the roof. The elevator then entered into the box, and the door closed up tightly.

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**Next Chapter: Meet the Survivors; War Against the Machines pt.3**


End file.
